r-NRLF 


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THE 


HOUSE 


BY 

MARY  S.  HAVILAND 


;™£EEE3 


THE  HOMEWARD   PATH 


THE  PLAY  HOUSE 

HOME  HYGIENE 

i 

BY 

MARY  S.  HAVILAND 

RESEARCH  SECRETARY  OP  THE 

NATIONAL  CHILD  WELFARE  ASSOCIATION,   INC. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 
MARGARET  F.  BROWNE 


PHILADELPHIA,  LONDON,  CHICAGO 
J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,    IQ2I,    BY   J.   B.    LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY 


PRINTED  BY  J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 
AT  THE  WASHINGTON  SQUARE  PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA,   XT.  8.  A. 


PREFACE 

The  immortal  Mr.  Dooley  has  declared  that  "you  can 
lead  a  boy  to  college,  but  you  can 't  make  him  think. ' ' 

The  object  of  these  little  books  is  to  make  children 
think  about  health,  for  while  it  may  be  "never  too 
late  to  mend"  bad  health  habits,  it  is  never  too  early  to 
form  good  ones. 

Health  cannot  be  forced  from  without ;  it  must  be  fos- 
tered from  within.  It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  provide 
our  children  with  proper  food,  clothe  them  suitably  and 
keep  them  clean.  We  must  also  give  them  an  intelligent 
understanding  of  the  hows  and  whys  underlying  the  laws 
of  hygiene,  and  must  impart  to  them  the  contagion  of  our 
own  enthusiasm  for  health. 

Therefore  I  have  sought,  in  these  informal  talks  with 
' '  Ruth  and  Paul, ' '  not  to  convey  the  maximum  number  of 
facts,  but  to  arouse  the  maximum  degree  of  interest. 
Facts  may  be  quickly  forgotten,  but  interest,  once  fully 
aroused,  never  quite  dies. 

Many  a  boy  or  girl  lives  like  a  boarder  in  his  own 
home,  totally  unfamiliar  with  its  workings,  totally  un- 
interested in  its  healthful  or  unhealthful  regime.  This  is 
especially  true  in  this  ready-made  age.  THE  PLAY- 
HOUSE is  an  attempt  to  show  how  delightful  an  ad- 
venture is  the  making  of  a  simple,  healthful,  happy  home, 
and  how  closely  the  making  of  such  a  home  is  bound  up 
with  the  health  and  character  of  its  makers  and  members. 

iii 

5201 


iv  PREFACE 

To  many  friends  thanks  are  due  for  advice,  criticism 
and  proofreading.  I  also  desire  especially  to  acknowl- 
edge my  debt  to  Dr.  W.  F.  Russell,  Dean  of  the  College  of 
Education  of  the  University  of  Iowa;  Professor  Jean 
Broadhurst  and  Miss  Caroline  E.  Stackpole  of  Columbia 
University,  and  Dr.  Martin  Edwards  of  Boston,  all  of 
whom  have  given  generously  of  their  time  and  interest  in 
behalf  of  these  books.  To  Miss  Emma  Dolfinger,  Normal 
School,  Louisville,  Kentucky,  I  am  indebted  for  the  valu- 
able questions  and  suggestions  at  the  end  of  each  chapter. 

MARY  S.  HAVILAND. 

National  Child  Welfare  Association, 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  TREE-HOUSE 1 

II.  THE  HOUSE  PLAN 12 

III.  THE  HOUSE  SITE 21 

IV.  LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS 30 

V.  How  THE  HOUSE  WAS  HEATED 39 

VI.  SOMETHING  ABOUT  DRAINS 48 

VII.  How  THE  HOUSE  WAS  LIGHTED 57 

VEIL  KITCHEN  COMFORT 66 

IX.  THE  BATHROOM 78 

X.  THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET 88 

XI.  THE  BEDROOM 101 

XII.  THE  LIVING-ROOM 112 

XIII.  A  MODERN  CRUSADE 122 

XIV.  SCREENS  AND  TRAPS 132 

XV.  MORE  SCREENS 141 

XVI.  CLEANING  DAY 151 

XVII.  THE  MARKET  BASKET 163 

XVIII.  THE  STORE  CLOSET , 172 

XIX.  THE  MILKY  WAY 180 

XX.  THE  HOUSEWARMING.  .  .   189 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  TKEE-HOUSE 

"ROCKABY  BABY  oca  the  'tree-top I"  sang  a  gay 
voice  overhead.  Uncle  George  halted  to  peer  upward 
through  the  cherry-tree  boughs.  A  plump,  red  cherry 
struck  his  cheek,  followed  by  a  vision  of  Ruth's 
flushed  face  and  tangled  locks  framed  in  intertwin- 
ing, sun-flecked  leaves. 

" Oh,  Uncle  George,"  she  cried,  "do  come  up  into 
my  tree-house  (frontispiece)  and  have  some  cherry- 
wine  in  my  parlor. ' ' 

" Nothing  I'd  like  better,"  assented  Uncle  George, 
"but  please  direct  me  to  the  front  door-steps, 
kind  lady." 

"Oh,  do  you  really  need  steps ?"  queried  Ruth,  in 
what  her  brother  Paul  called  her  "grown-up"  voice. 
"I  didn't  suppose  you  were  so  feeble.  When  Mother 
comes  up,  she  uses  the  ladder  that  is  in  the  garage, 
but  Father  and  Paul  and  I  just  climb." 

' '  Indeed !  Well,  here  goes ! ' '  And  after  a  moment 
of  "just  climbing,"  Uncle  George  was  sitting  on  the 
platform  in  the  cherry-tree  beside  Ruth  and  drinking 
a  glass  of  the  cherry-wine. 

"I  made  it  myself — out  of  my  own  head,"  ex- 
plained Ruth.  "I  just  squeezed  the  juice  into  some 


.\.   ,    TliE 

ice-water*  arid  i hen  sugared  it.  I  do  love  this  tree- 
house.  I  can  make  all  sorts  of  messes  here  and  never 
bother  anyone  and  never  be  bothered  by  anyone.  I'd 
like  to  live  up  in  a  tree  all  the  time." 

"You  ought  to  go  and  live  in  the  Philippines," 
replied  Uncle  George.  "I  was  reading  last  night 
about  a  traveler  who  said  that  in  the  wilder  parts  of 
the  Philippine  Islands  there  are  whole  villages  built 
on  platforms  in  the  trees  like  your  house  here.  He 
hunted  and  hunted  for  one  of  these  villages  until  at 
last  he  came  upon  a  rustic  ladder.  He  climbed  this 
and  found  a  swinging  bridge-path  from  tree  to  tree. 
He  walked  along  through  the  tree-tops  in  this  way 
until  he  reached  the  village  of  the  Manobos." 

' '  How  queer ! ' '  exclaimed  Ruth.  '  '  To  have  a  whole 
village  full  of  people  living  up  in  trees.  It  sounds 
like  the  Banderlog  in  the  Jungle  Book.  You  know 
they  were  monkeys  and  lived  way  up  in  the  tree-tops 
in  the  jungle. " 

"Yes,"  agreed  Uncle  George.  "It  does  seem 
queer  to  us,  but  I  suppose  our  great-great-great-an- 
cestors, thousands  of  years  ago,  if  they  lived  in  the 
tropics,  where  there  were  lots  of  hungry  beasts  roam- 
ing about,  were  only  too  glad  to  have  a  safe  home  up 
in  a  tree,  out  of  reach  of  their  enemies.  Perhaps 
those  far-away  ancestors  of  yours  have  handed  down 
to  you  their  love  of  the  tree-tops  and  that  is  why, 
when  you  want  to  get  away  from  folks,  you  love  to 
scramble  up  here." 

' '  Perhaps  that  is  the  reason, ' '  mused  Ruth.  ' i  But 
my  tree-house  isn't  in  the  jungle,  and  sometimes, 


THE  TREE-HOUSE  3 

even  in  summer,  it's  too  cold  up  here.  And  on  very 
rainy  days  the  rain  beats  right  through  the  lovely, 
green-leaf  roof  and  spoils  my  parlor  carpet.  Once  I 
forgot  and  left  Edith  Louise  here  overnight,  and  it 
rained,  and  in  the  morning  all  the  paint  was  washed 
off  her  face  and  her  hair  was  ruined." 

"How   sad!"    said   Uncle    George.     "You   see, 
Ruthie,  the  chief  reason  for  building  houses,  long, 


long  ago,  was  so  as  to  provide  a  safe  shelter  for  the 
children — a  place  where  the  wild  beasts  couldn't 
attack  them  and  where  they  would  be  sheltered  from 
rain  and  cold.  In  northern  climates,  the  trees  were 
too  chilly  for  homes,  but  often  the  limbs  were  cut 
down  and  then  woven  together  to  form  a  rude  hut, 
and  the  sides  were  daubed  with  mud  and  dried.  They 
looked  something  like  a  bird's  nest  turned  upside 
down  on  the  ground. ' ' 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


"But,"  objected  Ruth,  "I  should  think  they 
would  be  awfully  dark  and  stuffy,  without  any 
windows  or  chimney." 

uSo  they  were,  and 
besides  that  they  were 
very  damp,  being  built 
right  on  the  ground. 
And  if  a  fire  was  built 
inside  to  make  them  a 
bit  warmer,  there  was 
no  place  for  the  smoke 
to  escape." 

' i  That  was  the  trouble 
that  Paul  and  Jim  had 
in  their  pirate  cave  last  summer, ? '  said  Ruth.  ' '  They 
found  a  perfectly  splendid  cave  over  in  Peckham's 
woods  and  they  used  to  play  pirate  and  cook  potatoes 
and  things  right  in  the  cave.  I  used  to  play  be  a 
maiden  that  they  had  captured  and  were  holding 
for  a  ransom,  and  I  was  supposed  to  do  the  cooking. '  • 
"What  fun!"  said  Uncle  George. 
"Yes,  but  the  smoke  got  into  our  clothes  so  Mother 
said  'PhewP  every  time  we  came  into  the  house,  and 
besides  it  made  our  eyes  sore,  so  we  had  to  stop  it." 

"People  have  always  lived  in  caves  more  or  less," 
said  Uncle  George,  "but,  as  you  say,  they  are  dark 
and  very  smoky.  Somewhat  like  a  glorified  cave  are 
the  pueblos  where  the  Zuni  and  some  other  Indian 
tribes  live." 

"Did  you  ever  see  one?"  asked  Ruth. 

"Yes,  last  year,  when  I  was  in  New  Mexico,  I  saw 


THE  TREE-HOUSE  5 

a  very  interesting  pueblo.  Here  is  a  picture  of  it  that 
I  took.  You  see  it  is  built  up  on  a  cliff  and  each  story 
is  set  further  back  than  the  one  below  it.  It  is  made 
of  sun-dried  brick  with  no  doors  in  the  ground  floor. 
The  rude  ladders  lead  up  to  the  roof  and  then  you 
go  through  a  hole  in  the  roof  down  another  ladder 
into  the  room.  Often  a  whole  tribe  of  Indians  lived 
in  one  pueblo. " 


"I  don't  think  that  would  suit  me  very  well,"  said 
Ruth.  "  I  ?d  rather  have  a  nice  little  home  of  my  own. 
The  pueblo  looks  almost  like  one  of  the  tenement 
houses  that  Mother  and  I  saw  in  New  York." 

"It  wouldn't  suit  me  either/7  said  Uncle  George, 
"but  among  savages  and  among  our  own  ancestors, 
long  ago,  there  was  such  constant  danger  from  other 
savage  tribes  and  from  wild  animals  that  everyone 
wanted  to  live  together  so  as  to  fight  the  common 


6  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

enemy.  In  Norway,  in  the  olden  days,  a  nobleman 
and  his  wife  and  his  sons  and  their  wives  and  all  the 
servants  and  relatives  lived  together  in  one  great  hall 
of  a  single  room.  Then,  if  they  were  attacked,  they 
could  all  help  to  defend  the  women  and  children. 
They  had  another  way  of  keeping  an  enemy  from 
taking  them  by  surprise,  too." 

" What  was  that?"  queried  Ruth,  eagerly. 

"Why,  they  made  the  entrance  door  very  low, 
and  they  built  the  sill  very  high,  so  that  anyone  who 
came  in  had  to  double  up  and  bend  his  head.  Then, 
if  he  was  an  enemy,  they  could  hit  him  on  his  bent 
head  before  he  had  a  chance  to  attack  them." 

' '  How  awful ! ' '  Ruth  shuddered.  ' '  I  certainly  am 
glad  that  nowadays  we  don't  have  to  think  all  the  time 
about  building  our  houses  so  that  we  shan't  be  killed 
by  beasts  or  murdered  by  enemies." 

"No,"  replied  Uncle  George,  "luckily,  we  don't 
have  to  think  much  about  those  enemies,  but  we  do 
have  to  think  about  a  good  many  things  that  our  fore- 
fathers never  dreamed  of.  We  can't  live  in  trees, 
because,  as  you  said,  they  are  too  cold  and  wet.  We 
don't  like  caves,  because  they  are  damp  and  smoky. 
And  we  don't  like  to  live  all  in  one  great  room  where 
we  can't  ever  get  off  by  ourselves.  Perhaps  you'd 
like  to  live  in  a  tent,  as  the  Indians  mostly  did." 

"I'd  like  that  first  rate,"  said  Paul's  voice.  It 
was  followed  by  his  curly  head  and  wide-open  blue 
eyes  as  he  hoisted  himself  up  onto  the  platform  and 
coolly  helped  himself  to  a  glass  of  cherry-wine.  ' '  Jim 
Nixon  and  I  are  going  to  take  all  our  stuff  out  of  the 


THE  TREE-HOUSE  7 

cave  and  we're  going  to  make  a  tent  back  of  Jim's 
house  and  camp  out  in  it.  Jim's  name  is  Ox  Jaw  and 
I'm  Sitting  Bull." 

" Tents  are  lots  of  fun,"  agreed  Ruth.  "Why 
did  some  of  the  Indians  live  in  them  and  others  live 
in  pueblos?" 

" Because,"  said  Uncle  George,  "most  of  the 
Indians  were  hunters,  so  they  wanted  to  pack  up 
easily  and  move  on  in  search  of  fresh  game.  They 
couldn't  live  in  a  house  of  brick  or  even  a  hut  of 
branches.  But  a  tent  can  be  packed  up  in  a  few 
minutes  and  carried  away  and  then  set  up  wherever 
you  want  it.  All  people  like  the  Indians  and  the 
Arabs,  who  wander  from  place  to  place,  have  no  fixed 
homes,  but  'fold  up  their  tents  and  silently  steal 
away'  whenever  they  feel  like  it." 

"Well,  that  wouldn't  suit  me,  either,"  said  Ruth, 
decidedly.  ' '  I  want  a  real  home  that  I  can  fix  up  with 
pretty  things  and  where  I  can  plant  a  garden  and 
live  always." 

"But  you  have  just  such  a  house  right  here  in 
Pleasantville, "  said  Uncle  George,  parting  the 
branches  to  look  at  the  cozy,  white  cottage  standing 
back  from  the  street  with  its  trim  lawn  in  front  and 
its  fruit  trees  and  shrubbery  in  the  rear.  "What 
more  do  you  want  ?  Why  do  you  long  to  climb  up  in 
trees  and  hide  in  caves  and  tents?" 

"I  don't  exactly  know,"  replied  Ruth,  slowly, 
"but  I'd  just  love  to  build  a  play-house  of  our  very 
own  here  under  this  tree." 

"So'd  I,"  chimed  in  Paul.    "It  would  be  great. 


8  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

I  could  have  all  the  fellows  in  and  we  could  use  it  for 
a  club-house  and,  when  company  came,  for  overnight, 
Ruth  and  I  could  sleep  out  here." 

" I'll  tell  you  what, ' '  exclaimed  Ruth.  ' ' Only  last 
night  Father  was  saying  that  the  house  was  really  too 
small  now  that  Paul  and  I  are  getting  so  big.  And 
Mother  said  she  thought  we  'd  have  to  build  an  exten- 
sion. Now,"-— here  Ruth's  eyes  grew  very  big  and 
round  and  excited — "why,  why,  instead  of  building 
an  addition  onto  the  house,  shouldn't  we  build  a  dar- 
ling little  play-house  right  here  back  of  the  grown- 
up house?" 

"It  wouldn't  cost  so  very  much  more,  would  it?" 
asked  Paul,  who,  in  spite  of  being  two  years  younger 
than  Ruth,  always  thought  more  than  she  did  about 
the  money  side  of  things. 

"No,"  said  Uncle  George,  slowly.  "I  don't  see 
why  it  should,  especially  if  I  help  you  with  it.  I've 
built  lots  of  'grown-up'  houses,  and  I  think,  for  a 
change,  it  would  be  great  fun  to  build  a  play-house." 

"Oh,  do  help  us  to  beg  Father  and  Mother  to  let 
us!"  cried  both  children. 

"All  right,"  agreed  their  uncle.  "No  time  like 
the  present.  We  must  have  a  house  that  is  warm  and 
dry,  which  this  lovely  tree-house  is  not." 

"And  it  must  be  sunny  and  have  plenty  of  air, 
which  the  cave  hasn't,"  said  Paul. 

"And  it  must  'stay  put,'  which  the  tent  doesn't," 
said  Ruth. 

"And  it  mustn't  be  full  of  a  lot  of  other  people, 
but  must  be  your  very  own  house,  wThere  you  can  be 


THE  TREE-HOUSE  9 

alone  if  you  wish  and  can  invite  your  company  when 
you  feel  like  it,"  finished  Uncle  George. 

"Oh,  goody!  Goody!"  shrieked  Ruth,  as  they  all 
scrambled  down  to  the  ground.  "It's  going  to  be  the 
loveliest,  blessedest  house  that  ever  was!" 

' '  That  depends  on  the  people  who  li ve  in  it,  Ruth, ' ' 
said  Uncle  George,  turning  serious.  "Abraham  Lin- 
coln lived  in  a  wretched  log  cabin,  but  his  mother's 


brave,  sunny  nature  made  it  beautiful,  and  Lincoln's 
life  has  made  it  sacred.  I  hope  your  cottage,  if  we 
build  it,  will  be  beautiful  with  happy  thoughts  and 
bright  with  fun  and  kindness.  Now  let's  see  who  can 
get  to  the  house  first." 

Off  they  all  three  ran  and  sank  in  a  heap  on  the 
door-step  just  as  Father  came  to  the  gate. 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

Houses  were  first  built  for  shelter  from  the  weather 
and  protection  from  enemies.     Let  us  recall  different 


10  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

kinds.  Tree-houses  were  built  of  branches  in  the  tops  of 
trees  in  jungles.  They  were  a  refuge  from  wild  animals. 
They  could  be  used  in  very  warm  climates  only.  Uncivi- 
lized people,  in  colder  climates,  once  built  huts  of  woven 
branches.  They  sheltered  the  people  from  bad  weather 
and  wild  animals.  They  were  uncomfortable,  not  strong, 
and  could  not  be  heated  or  ventilated  well.  Peoples  who 
wandered  from  place  to  place  learned  to  make  tent  houses, 
which  were  easily  put  up  and  taken  down.  Some  Indians 
made  their  tents  of  animal  skins.  Some  Arabs  made 
tents  of  woven  cloth.  There  were  still  other  peoples- 
Indians  of  the  Southwest,  who  learned  to  make  bricks. 
With  these  they  built  houses  against  the  cliffs  in  their 
country — one  house  above  the  other.  They  used  ladders 
to  get  from  story  to  story.  All  the  Indians  in  a  tribe  lived 
together  for  protection  against  their  enemies.  Our 
ancestors  in  Europe  also  had  to  fear  many  enemies  be- 
sides the  wild  animals.  They  built  great  halls,  or  castles, 
often  with  walls  around  them.  A  warrior,  with  his  family 
and  followers,  lived  together  within  the  walls  to  protect 
each  other.  These  castles  were  dark,  cheerless  and  often 
cold  in  winter. 

The  first  colonists  in  America  had  to  fear  Indians  and 
wild  animals.  They  made  their  homes  of  logs.  Either 
there  was  a  fort  nearby  or  the  houses  were  close  together 
and  a  stockade  of  logs  was  built  around  the  houses.  Now- 
adays we  have  neither  savage  enemies  nor  wild  beasts  to 
fear.  Sickness  and  bad  weather  are  the  enemies  our 
houses  must  keep  away.  So  we  can  have  our  houses  far 
apart,  with  many  large  windows  and  of  any  material  we 
desire.  We  can  have  them  well  heated  and  well  ventilated, 
with  many  comforts  of  which  our  ancestors  did  not  even 
dream.  A  modern  house  is  more  wonderful  than  any 
fairy  palace  when  we  begin  to  think  about  the  things  that 
are  in  it. 


THE  TREE-HOUSE  11 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Why  do  people  need  houses?  For  what  do  animals 
use  their  houses? 

Where  to-day  do  people  live  in  tree-houses?  What 
are  the  advantages  of  such  houses  f 

What  are  the  habits  of  people  who  make  tent-homes? 
What  peoples  do  you  know  of  who  live  in  tents?  What 
kinds  of  climates  do  they  have? 

What  kinds  of  homes  do  Indians  of  the  Southwest 
build  to  protect  themselves  from  their  enemies? 

Can  you  find  out  anything  about  the  homes  of  other 
Indians  through  reading  or  visits  to  museums? 

Why  did  our  European  ancestors  build  stone  castles 
and  walled  towns  with  thick  walls  and  narrow  windows  ? 

Bead  about  these  in  a  history  to  find  out  how  they  were 
lighted,  heated,  ventilated  and  kept  clean.  Then  decide  if 
you  would  like  to  live  in  a  castle  like  that. 

In  what  ways  are  good  modern  homes  better  than 
these  other  homes? 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  PLAN  OF  THE  HOUSE 

THERE  is  nothing  else  quite  so  hard  in  life  as 
waiting.  That  was  what  Paul  and  Ruth  thought  all 
during  supper  time.  They  were  so  full  of  their  play- 
house scheme  that  they  could  scarcely  eat,  but  as  soon 
as  Father  saw  Uncle  George,  he  had  said,  "You  are 
just  the  one  I  want  to  see  about  that  investment." 
Then  he  and  Uncle  George  had  begun  to  talk  about 
stocks  and  securities  and  other  incomprehensible 
things,  until  Ruth  began  to  fear  that  Uncle  George 
had  forgotten  all  about  the  play-house. 

But  as  they  rose  from  the  table,  Uncle  George 
said,  "And  now,  John,  there  is  something  else  that 
we  must  talk  about — something  very  important,  isn't 
it,  Paid!" 

"Oh,  yes,  lots  more  important  than  any  old  stocks 
and  bonds, "  cried  Paul. 

"It's  a  perfectly  gorgeous  idea  for  giving  us  more 
room.  You  know  you  said  we  really  needed  more 
room,"  said  Ruth. 

"Yes,  and  it  really  won't  cost  any  more  than  it 
would  to  build  a  wing  onto  the  house,"  added  Paul. 

"And  it  will  help  to  keep  the  house  all  nice  and 
tidy,  because  we'll  be  playing  out  there  all  the  time," 
exclaimed  Ruth. 

"Well,  well,  do  put  me  out  of  my  suspense  and 
let's  hear  all  about  this  marvelous  idea,"  said  Father. 
12 


THE  PLAN  OF  THE  HOUSE  13 

So  Father  sat  down  in  the  big  rocker  with  Paul 
on  his  knee,  while  Ruth  perched  on  the  arm  of  Uncle 
George's  chair.  Then  they  unfolded  to  Father  the 
wonderful  scheme,  and  after  Uncle  George  had  ex- 
plained that  he  would  help  to  plan  and  build  it  and 
that  he  could  get  all  the  lumber  and  fixtures  cheaply, 
because  he  was  an  architect,  Father  said,  "Well,  if 
Mother  is  willing,  so  am  I." 

Both  children  rushed  into  the  kitchen  where 
Mother  was  sprinkling  clothes  and  dragged  her  into 
the  sitting-room.  Then  Uncle  George  had  to  explain 
all  over  again.  "I  think  it  would  be  a  very  sensible 
plan,"  said  Mother.  "It  will  mean  an  extra  place  to 
put  company.  The  children  can  keep  all  their  toys 
and  things  there.  It  is  about  time  that  they  both 
learned  something  about  housekeeping,  and  besides, 
I  always  wanted  a  play-house  when  I  was  a  little  girl 
and  never  had  one.  I  think  I  shall  enjoy  it  almost  as 
much  as  Ruth  and  Paul." 

"Oh,  goody!"  shrieked  Ruth. 

"Let's  draw  a  plan  of  it,"  suggested  Paul. 

"All  right,"  agreed  Uncle  George.  "Get  me  a 
sheet  of  paper,  Paul,  please.  Now  how  many  rooms 
shall  we  have0?" 

"Not  many,"  said  Mother.  "I  think  two  bed- 
rooms and  a  play-room  will  be  enough." 

"Oh,"  sighed  Ruth.  "I  hoped  we  could  have  a 
cunning  little  kitchen.  Don't  you  think  we  might, 
Mother?" 

"Oh,  yes,  do  let's  have  a  kitchen,"  begged  Paul. 
"You  know  you  said  yourself,  Mother,  that  every 


14 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


boy  ought  to  learn  cooking  just  as  much  as  the 
girls  do." 

"Well,"  said  Father,  " suppose  we  lay  out  a  plan 
of  the  way  we'd  like  to  make  the  house  and  then  later 
we  can  discuss  the  cost." 


/        1 

^-         -*- 

"I  want  a  cunning  porch  with  seats  each  side," 
said  Ruth. 

"One  like  this,"  said  Father,  holding  up  a  rough 
sketch. 

"I  think  the  porch  should  lead  right  into  a  big  sit- 
ting-and-work-and-play-room,"  said  Uncle  George. 

"Oh,  couldn't  we  have  a  fireplace?"  urged 
Paul.  "It's  such  fun  to  pop  corn  and  roast  apples 
and  things." 


THE  PLAN  OF  THE  HOUSE 


15 


"  Perhaps  we  might,  if  we  all  turn  in  and  help 
build  it,"  said  Father. 

"Oh,  we'll  all  work  at  it  every  day,"  assented 
Ruth,  eagerly. 

So,  with  suggestions  first  from  one  and  then  from 
another,  Uncle  George  drew  the  plan  of  the  play- 
house. It  provided  a  fine  big  room  where  the  chil- 
dren could  work  and  play  and  Paul  could  sleep,  a  tiny 


fcED-HGDM 


VUWROOM 


o 


&ATH 


c — il 


kitchen  with  a  back  porch  off  it,  a  bedroom  for  Ruth 
and  a  bathroom. 

"I'm  afraid  it  will  cost  a  good  deal,"  said  Mother, 
"but  it  will  leave  Ruth's  room  in  this  house  for  a 
guest-room,  and  I'll  turn  Paul's  room  into  a  sewing- 
room — I've  always  wanted  one." 

"I  can  get  all  the  materials  at  cost,"  said  Uncle 
George,  "and  if  we  build  it  ourselves,  it  won't  be 
very  expensive." 

"Dear  me,"  said  Mother,  "how  much  more  chil- 


16 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


THE  PLAN  OF  THE  HOUSE 


17 


dren  have  nowadays  than  they  had  when  I  was  young. 
When  I  was  Ruth's  age,  my  sister  and  I  used  to  make 
play-houses  by  laying  out  stones  to  mark  off  the  dif- 
ferent rooms.  Our  favorite  place  was  under  the  old 
apple-tree,  and  we  used  to  make  furniture  out  of 
the  twigs." 

Paul  had  been  looking  at  the  plan.  "  We  are  going 
to  have  an  awful  lot  of  windows,  aren't  wel" 
he  remarked. 

"Yes,"  said  Father,  " because  windows  are  very, 
very  important.  You  see,  Uncle  George  has  put  win- 
dows on  two  sides  of  each  room  and  has  placed  the 
doors  so  that  when  they  are  open  the  air  will  blow 
right  straight  from  one  side  of  the  house  to  the  other. 
If  a  room  has  windows  only  on  one  side,  like  this, 
you  see  that  the  air  just  comes  in  a  little  way  and 
then  goes  right  out  again.  But  with  windows  on 
opposite  sides,  like  this, 
the  cold  air  comes  in 
down  here,  goes  way 
across  the  room  and  out 
up  here." 

"But,"  said  Ruth, 
"in  the  city,  where 
houses  are  built  in  one 
long  row,  you  can't 
have  windows  on  two 
sides,  unless  you  live 
on  the  corner." 

"No,"  agreed  Mother,  "and  then  all  you  can  do  is 
to  open  the  window  top  and  bottom,  so  as  to  make  an 

2 


18 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


entrance  for  the  fresh  air  and  an  exit  for  the  bad 
air.  And  you  can  open  the  doors  through  the  house, 
so  that  the  air  can  blow  through  from  front  to  back 

or  back  to  front,  which- 
ever way  the  wind  hap- 
pens to  be  coming  from. ' ' 
"It  won't  be  so  airy 
as  my  tree-house,"  said 
Ruth. 

"No,  but  it  will  be 
drier  and  more  comfort- 
able. And  it  will  be 
much  nicer  than  the 


cave,  won't  it,  Paul? 


'Yes,"  said  Paul,  "and  we  can  cook  all  kinds  of 
things  over  the  open  fire." 

"There's  another  good  thing  about  an  open  fire," 
put  in  Uncle  George.  "  It  is  as  good  as  a  window  for 
supplying  fresh  air.  Sometimes,  when  the  fire  is  out, 
fresh  air  comes  down  the  chimney.  And  when  the 
fire  is  going  it  sends  the  used  air  up  the  chimney.  One 
of  the  very  first  things  in  planning  a  house  is  to  be 
sure  that  you  have  plenty  of  air  and  sunlight." 

"Oh,  do  let's  go  outside  and  decide  just  where  to 
put  the  house,"  cried  Ruth. 

But  Mother  pointed  to  the  clock.  ' '  Eight  o  'clock, 
Ruth,"  she  said,  "and  to-morrow  is  a  school-day. 
Off  to  bed  with  you.  You  can  build  dream  castles 
all  night." 


THE  PLAN  OF  THE  HOUSE  19 

THINGS  TO  DO 

See  if  your  schoolroom  has  enough  window  space. 
Architects  say  that  the  space  taken  up  by  windows  should 
be  one-fifth  of  the  floor  space.  Measure  your  windows  and 
your  floors  and  see  if  you  have  enough  light. 

Wise  builders  also  say  that  each  person  in  a  room 
ought  to  have  3000  cubic  feet  of  fresh  air  every  hour. 
Can  you  find  out  the  amount  of  air  your  schoolroom  con- 
tains? Can  you  find  out  how  much  air  all  the  people  in 
your  class  require  in  one  hour?  Now,  can  you  find  out 
how  many  hours  the  air  in  the  room  will  last  the  people 
in  it  without  changing  or  letting  fresh  air  in?  Does  this 
explain  why  we  either  must  have  our  windows  always 
open  a  little  or  else  have  air  pumped  in  from  the  outside ! 

If  your  school  has  fresh-warmed  and  washed  air 
pumped  in  from  the  outside  perhap(s  your  teacher  will 
take  you  to  see  how  this  is  done. 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

A  well-planned  house  has  many  windows.  These  are 
placed  on  two  sides  of  a  room  whenever  it  is  possible,  in- 
stead of  just  on  one  side.  Doors,  too,  are  placed  so  that 
when  doors  and  windows  are  open,  air  can  blow  through 
the  rooms.  Fresh  air  in  this  way  reaches  every  part  of 
the  room,  instead  of  the  window  side  only.  "When  win- 
dows must  be  on  one  side  only,  they  should  be  opened  at 
top  and  bottom  for  ventilation.  The  warm  air  in  the 
room  rises,  goes  out  at  top,  while  colder  fresh  air  comes 
in  at  bottom. 

An  open  fireplace  is  another  way  to  let  air  into  a 
house.  When  there  is  no  fire  the  cold  outside  air  drops 
down  into  the  room.  When  there  is  a  fire  the  warm  air 
over  it  rises  up  the  chimney  and  draws  the  used  air  in  the 
room  up  after  it.  Sometimes  you  can  hear  the  air  rushing 
up  the  chimney  when  the  grate  "  draws  "  well. 


20  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

How  could  we  air  our  schoolrooms  most  thoroughly? 
Our  bedrooms  in  the  mornings  ?  Are  windows  and  doors 
well  placed? 

How  can  you  open  your  windows  at  nights,  so  as  to  get 
the  best  ventilation  without  a  draft  ? 

Can  you  tell  why  grates  are  said  to  be  * i  healthier ' r 
than  steam  heat  ? 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOUSE 

As  Uncle  George  opened  the  Westerns'  gate  the 
next  afternoon  he  was  seized  on  either  side  by  an 
eager  hand,  and  two  excited  voices  exclaimed,  "Do 
come  right  away  and  help  decide  where  the  house 
shall  stand. " 

"Let's  begin  digging  this  very  minute/'  cried 
Paul. 

"Not  so  fast,  young  man,"  protested  Uncle 
George.  "I  want  to  build  this  house  well,  but  I  also 
want  you  to  understand  just  the  reason  for  every- 
thing we  do." 

' '  Oh,  yes, ' '  agreed  Ruth.  ' '  When  I  'm  grown,  I  'm 
going  to  be  an  architect.  Mother  says  there  are  some 
very  good  women  architects.  So  I  want  to  know  the 
why  of  every  single  thing  about  our  play-house." 

"Well,  then,"  said  Uncle  George.  "There  are 
several  things  that  everyone — not  only  architects  but 
everyone — ought  to  know  about  houses.  And  one 
thing  is  the  right  and  the  wrong  situation  for  a  house. 
I  wonder  how  much  you  youngsters  know  about  it." 

"I  know  one  thing,"  said  Paul.  "Our  cave  was 
so  close  to  Peckham's  Swamp  that  we  got  all  bitten 
up  with  mosquitoes.  So  I'm  sure  a  house  oughtn't 
to  be  near  a  swamp." 

"Right,"  nodded  Uncle  George.  "Mosquitoes 
live  in  damp  places.  Probably  you  have  learned  at 

21 


22  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

school  that  some  mosquitoes  carry  malaria  and  others 
can  give  us  yellow  fever — that  is,  they  can  carry  the 
germs  from  a  sick  person  to  a  well  one.  So  we  don't 
want  any  damp,  mosquito-breeding  swamp  or  stand- 
ing water  near  our  house." 

"Well,  that's  all  right,  anyhow,"  remarked  Ruth. 
"There  is  no  swamp  near  here.    Had  we  better  put 


the  play-house  in  front  of  the  big  house  or  back  of  it  ? 
I  think  it  had  better  be  behind  it,  so  as  not  to  get  all 
the  dust  from  the  road." 

"A  good  idea,"  said  Uncle  George.  "Now  just 
where  shall  it  stand?" 

"Let's  put  it  right  under  the  cherry-tree.  That 
will  make  a  nice  shade,  so  it  won't  be  baking  hot  like 
the  tent  we  had  last  year." 


THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOUSE 


"And  the  tree  is  tall  enough  so  as  to  let  the  air 
and  sunlight  come  in/'  added  Uncle  George.  "Yes, 
under  the  tree  ought  to  be  a  good  place,  but  let's  look 


and  see  whether  it's  as  good  a  place  underground  as 
it  is  overground." 

"What  do  you  mean?"  asked  Paul,  knitting  his 
forehead.  "How  can  we  tell  what  it's  like 
underground'?" 

"We  can't  tell  except  with  the  help  of  people  who 
have  studied  and  examined  the  ground.  Here  is  a 
map  of  what  lies  under  your  Father's  house  and 
grounds.  You  see  on  top  there  is  a  layer  of  dirt, 
or  loam;  next  comes  a  thicker  layer  of  sand.  This 
gets  coarser  and  coarser  until  it  is  gravel.  Finally  we 
strike  a  layer  of  clay.  Now  you  know  the  earth  is 
like  a  big  sponge  full  of  water." 

"Oh,  yes,"  cried  Euth,  "Mother  explained  all  that 


THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOUSE  25 

to  us  last  summer.  The  rain  soaks  down  through  the 
dirt  and  sand  and  gravel,  but  when  it  comes  to  the 
clay  it  can't  get  through,  so  it  lies  there  and  makes 
'ground  water.'  That's  where  the  water  for  wells 
comes  from." 

"That's  it,"  said  Uncle  George.  "Well,  then, 
you  can  readily  see  that  we  don't  want  to  dig  the 
foundations  of  our  house  in  a  place  where  the  ground 
water  is  very  near  the  surface,  or  else  the  cellar 
will  be  damp." 

"Well,  why  does  that  hurt?"  asked  Paul.  "So 
long  as  we  don't  live  in  the  cellar?" 

"It  matters  in  several  ways,"  explained  Uncle 
George.  "In  the  first  place,  the  air  in  the  house  is 
warmer  than  in  the  cellar,  and  you  know  that  warm 
air  rises,  don't  you?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Ruth.  Oftentimes,  over  a  chim- 
ney you  can  see  the  warm  air  rising,  and  I've  often 
seen  it  in  the  summer  time  over  the  meadow,  rising 
in  a  wavering,  shimmery  sort  of  stream." 

"Well,  then,"  continued  her  uncle,  "as  the  warm 
air  rises,  the  cold,  cellar  air  goes  up  to  take  its  place 
in  the  house,  ^"ow,  if  the  cellar  is  wet,  this  rising 
air  will  be  very  damp.  Damp  air  is  not  always  bad, 
but  a  constant  stream  of  cold,  damp  air  is  not  very 
healthful.  Besides,  in  a  damp  cellar,  mold  is  likely 
to  collect  and  any  vegetables  or  fruit  stored  there 
are  apt  to  decay,  and  you  know  that  decaying  vege- 
tables are  not  a  very  pleasant  sort  of  perfume  for 
one's  house." 

"But,"  said  Paul,  who  had  been  examining  the 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


map.    "It  looks  as  if  the  water  were  way,  way  below 
our  house  cellar,  doesn't  it?" 

"Yes,  it  is,"  replied  Uncle  George, "  a  good  fifteen 
feet — and  here,  in  the  spot  that  we  have  chosen  for 
our  play-house,  under  the  cherry-tree,  the  ground 
is  sandy  and  dry,  so  that  I  think  we  can  be  sure  that 
we  have  chosen  a  very  good  spot  for  our  play-house." 
"And  now,"  said  Ruth,  "which  way  shall  we  have 
the  play-house  face  ?  The  big  house  faces  west,  and 
I  think  that  is  nice,  because  you  can  stand  on  the 
porch  and  watch  the  sunset." 

"I  think,"  suggested  Mother,  who  had  just  come 
out  to  join  the  group  on  the  lawn,  "that  it  might  be 
wise  to  have  the  entrance  on  the  west,  because  that 
would  make  the  kitchen  face  north,  which  would  be 
less  sunny  in  summer  and  would  also  give  Ruth  a 
nice,  sunny  bedroom  in  winter." 

"Now  my  suggestion," 
said  Uncle  George,  "is  that 
we  don't  make  the  house 
face  directly  west,  but  that 
we  set  it  like  this  with  the 
porch  facing  northwest 
and  the  corners  of  the 
house  pointing  north, 
south,  east  and  west.  You 
see  that  this  piece  of  a 
circle  which  I  have  drawn 
showrs  the  course  of  the 
sun  in  winter,  rising  and  setting  a  little  south  of  the 
exact  east  and  west.  If  the  house  faced  directly  west, 


-i-E 


THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOUSE  27 

you  can  see  that  Ruth's  room  and  the  bathroom 
would  get  all  the  sunshine  in  winter.     The  dotted 
lines  show  how,  in  summer, 
the  sun  rises  and  sets  a  little 
north  of  the  exact  east  and 
west  line.    You  can  see  that 
by  setting  the  house  'cater-     ,•       ** 
cornered'    you    give    each " 
window  a  chance  to  get  a 
share  of  the  sunshine,  in- 
stead of  having  one  room 
get  it  all."  ^Y- 

"That's     funny,"     ex-  s 

claimed  Ruth.  ' '  I  never  thought  of  that  before.  But 
how  can  they  manage  it  in  the  city  ?  If  a  street  runs 
straight  north  and  south,  or  east  and  west,  it  would 
look  awfully  funny  to  see  all  the  houses  set  with  their 
corners  to  the  sidewalk." 

"Yes,"  agreed  Mother,  "so  it  would.  But  in  a 
number  of  the  newer  cities  the  streets  have  been  pur- 
posely laid  out  running  diagonally,  so  that  the  houses 
can  get  some  sun  in  each  room. ' ' 

"Well,"  said  Paul,  "I  never  thought  it  would 
take  so  much  fussing  to  build  a  house.  I  thought  you 
could  just  go  ahead  and  dig  anywhere." 

"Why,  Paul,"  said  Uncle  George,  "don't  you  re- 
member how  long  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Oriole  took  before 
deciding  on  the  best  place  to  build  their  nest?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  cried  Ruth,  "they  sat  and  chirped  and 
talked  and  visited  all  the  different  trees  for  two  whole 
days  before  they  began  to  build  at  all.  And  finally 


28  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

they  made  the  loveliest  nest  right  here  in  the  cherry- 
tree.  But  they  didn't  come  back  this  year — you  can 
see  the  empty  nest  now." 

"Well,"  said  Mother,  "let's  hope  that  your  house- 
keeping will  be  luckier  than  the  orioles'  and  that  you 
can  use  youi  house  for  a  great  many  years  to  come." 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Find  out  in  what  direction  your  house  faces. 

Find  out  how  many  rooms  in  your  house  get  the 
morning  sun.  The  evening  sun.  Note  what  time  the  sun 
enters  the  room  you  are  in  most.  Note  the  hour  the  sun 
leaves  the  room,  and  figure  how  many  hours  of  sunshine 
the  room  gets.  Which  rooms  in  your  house  have  the  most 
hours  of  sunshine! 

Go  down  into  your  cellar  and  make  a  list  of  the  ways 
that  dampness  is  prevented  there.  Examine  all  of  your 
premises  to  see  if  there  is  dampness  anywhere. 

THINGS  TO  EEMEMBER 

A  comfortable  and  healthful  house  must  be  built  in  a 
healthful  place.  We  must  consider  how  clean  and  pure 
the  air  around  it  is,  how  much  sunlight  enters  the  rooms 
and  how  well  drained  is  the  ground  on  which  it  is  built. 

Marshy  places,  little  puddles,  weed-grown  and  damp 
vacant  lots  nearby  are  homes  for  mosquitoes.  Mosqui- 
toes, not  night  air,  spread  malaria.  No  site  is  good  which 
is  damp.  There  should  be  no  gutters  or  basins  around  a 
house  where  water  can  collect  and  stand. 

Dusty  air,  filled  with  street  dirt,  is  bad.  No  dwelling 
house  should  be  so  close  to  the  street  that  the  air  inside  is 
always  dust-laden. 

The  ground  on  which  the  house  is  built  must  be  well 
drained.  Then  water  that  falls  on  the  surface  of  the  soil 
will  be  carried  away  from  the  house  and  its  foundations. 
We  can  find  out  about  this  from  the  city  engineer  or  the 


THE  SITE  OF  THE  HOUSE  29 

State  geologist.  Poorly-drained  ground  causes  damp 
basements.  The  air  from  such  damp  basements  will  find 
its  way  into  the  house,  carrying  with  it  disagreeable 
odors,  and  sometimes  uncomfortable  chilliness.  Things 
stored  in  damp  basements  mold,  mildew  or  decay,  since 
the  little  living  germs  thrive  in  moist,  dark  places. 

In  our  latitude  (Do  you  know  what  this  means?)  the 
sun  in  winter  rises  and  sets  a  little  south  of  east  or  west. 
Therefore  we  must  arrange  our  houses  so  that  one  side 
does  not  get  all  the  winter  sun.  The  best  placing  of  a 
house  is  to  turn  the  corners  towards  the  cardinal  points. 
What  are  these  I  Make  a  diagram  with  a  house  placed  so. 
In  what  direction  will  the  street  the  house  faces,  run ?  Sun- 
light prevents  germs  from  growing.  It  warms  and  dries 
the  air.  Therefore  we  need  as  much  as  possible  in  every 
room  in  the  house. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Examine  the  premises  for  a  block  around  your  home. 
Your  school.  Make  a  map  of  the  block  and  put  in  with 
blue  crosses  the  damp  places.  How  many  are  there  near 
your  home  ?  School?  How  many  stopped-up  pipes,  basins, 
barrels,  gutters  with  standing  water?  Are  there  mosqui- 
toes near-by?  What  should  be  done  to  improve  condi- 
tions ?  What  can  you  do  ? 

How  does  the  city  aim  to  protect  people  from  dusty 
air  which  might  be  blown  into  our  stores  or  homes?  Is 
your  house  surrounded  with  clean  air  ? 

Examine  your  basement  and  find  out  if  it  is  damp. 
Why  do  we  object  to  damp  cellars? 

Point  to  the  north.  Use  a  compass  if  you  are  not  sure. 
How  does  your  house  face?  How  does  your  street  run? 

Why  is  it  hard  to  grow  plants  in  north  windows? 
Name  all  the  disadvantages  you  think  of  from  having  sun 
cut  off  from  your  yard  and  house.  How  should  a  house 
be  placed  so  that  the  rooms  may  all  get  a  share  of 
the  sunshine? 


CHAPTER  IV 

LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS 

THE  weeks  that  followed  were  full  of  excitement 
and  interest  for  the  Weston  family — full  of  hard 
work,  too,  for  although  Father  hired  a  man  to  dig  the 
cellar  and  do  some  of  the  heaviest  work,  there  re- 
mained plenty  to  keep  Father,  Uncle  George,  Paul 
and  Ruth  all  busy. 

Father  had  suggested  that  instead  of  a  cellar 
they  might  raise  the  house  above  the  ground  on  brick 
columns,  with  lattice  work  between.  "  That,"  he 


said,  "will  let  the  air  blow  through  under  the 
house  and  will  keep  the  ground  from  being  too 
damp. ' '  But  Mother  had  insisted  on  a  " really,  truly" 
cellar.  " While  we  are  about  it,"  she  declared,  "we 

30 


LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS  31 

might  as  well  have  not  merely  a  make-believe  play- 
house, but  a  real  little  house  that  can  be  used  as  an 
overflow  to  put  extra  company  in  and  that  will  be 
comfortable  in  both  winter  and  summer.  Do  you 
remember  two  years  ago,  when  Paul  had  the  scarlet 
fever  ?  How  fine  it  would  have  been  if  we  had  had  a 
little  house  then  to  keep  him  in  so  that  the  big  house 
would  not  have  had  to  be  quarantined." 

So  the  cellar  had  been  dug,  and  Paul  had  noted 
with  interest  that  the  soil  under  the  cherry-tree  was 
almost  like  sand,  just  as  the  ground-map  had  shown 
it.  ' '  Why  is  it  good  to  build  oil  sandy  soil  ? ' '  Paul  had 
queried.  "Yes,"  chimed  in  Ruth,  "last  Sunday  Mr. 
Hortoii  read  from  the  Bible  to  us  about  the  man 
who  built  his  house  on  the  sand  and  the  winds  and 
the  floods  beat  on  the  house  and  it  fell,  but  the  house 
that  was  built  on  a  rock  stood  firm." 

Father  laughed.  "I  fancy  that  has  puzzled  older 
people  than  you,"  he  said,  "and  I  am  not  sure  that  I 
can  give  you  a  perfectly  correct  explanation,  but  I 
think  Jesus  had  in  mind  the  sandy  valley  of  the  River 
Jordan.  The  Jordan  is  like  a  mountain  torrent  rush- 
ing along  in  a  sort  of  trough  made  by  its  clayey  banks. 
When  the  snow  melts,  the  river  overflows  its  banks. 
•Sometimes  a  day  of  rain  will  make  the  river  suddenly 
rise  four  or  five  feet.  So  when  the  Bible  says,  'The 
rain  descended  and  the  floods  came/  you  must  think 
of  the  Jordan  at  full  flood  sweeping  away  the  houses 
that  were  built  on  the  sandy  plain.  But  a  house  built 
on  a  rock  standing  above  the  plain  would  be  safe  from 
the  flood." 


32  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"I  see,"  said  Ruth,  slowly,  "but  here  in  Pleasant- 
ville  we  don't  have  any  river  to  flood  us  and  wash 
away  our  houses." 

"But,"  persisted  Paul,  "why  is  sand  better  for 
our  house?  I  should  think  rock  would  be  just  as 
good,  or  dirt." 

"I  can  very  easily  show  you,"  said  Father,  "if 
you  will  get  me  a  square  of  cheese-cloth  and 
three  tumblers." 

A  moment  later  Paul  returned  and  Father  cut  the 


cheese-cloth  into  three  squares  and  put  one  over  each 
tumbler.  Into  one  piece  of  cloth  he  put  several 
spoonfuls  of  sand,  into  another  some  dirt  and  into 
a  third  a  lump  of  clay;  then  he  slowly  poured  a 
little  water  upon  each.  "Now  you  can  see,"  he  said 
"that  clayey  soil  holds  water,  that  ordinary  dirt  lets 
it  drip  through  a  little  more  quickly,  but  that  in  sandy 
soil  water  runs  away  almost  at  once.  You  can  see 
why  it  is  good  to  build  your  house  where  after  a  rain 


LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS 


33 


the  ground  will  quickly  dry  and  where,  if  a  drain-pipe 
should  break,  the  filthy  waste-water  will  run  away 
quickly  instead  of  remaining  in  the  ground  a  long 
time.  Of  course,  a  'broken  drain  ought  to  be  mended 
at  once,  but  until  it  is  mended  the  sewage  should  drain 
away  as  quickly  as  possible.  I  have  heard  that  under 
a  certain  old  English  palace  the  ground  is  so  soaked 


with  sewage  that  the  Queen  was  never  willing  to  stay 
there,  the  smell  was  so  disagreeable." 

A  few  days  later  the  cellar  was  completed.  The 
walls  were  made  of  smooth  brick,  with  a  layer  of 
broken  stone  between  them  and  the  earth.  Broken 
stone  was  also  put  in  the  bottom  of  the  cellar  space 
and  cement  over  it  to  form  the  cellar  floor.  "Now," 
said  Uncle  George,  "  if  we  should  have  a  rainy  sea- 
son, the  water  will  drain  away  from  our  house  and  we 
shall  always  have  a  good,  dry  cellar." 


34  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

Ruth  looked  admiringly  at  the  smooth  walls. 
"My!"  she  exclaimed,  "Up  at  Dorothy  Frost's  house 
we  went  down  in  the  cellar  one  day  to  get  some  apples 
and  the  walls  were  dreadful.  They  were  awfully 
rough  and  dirty." 

"The  Eskimos,"  said  Uncle  George,  "have  an  odd 
way  of  smoothing  the  inside  walls  of  their  snow- 
houses.  When  the  house  is  all  built,  a  fire  is  made 
inside  and  kept  burning  until  the  snow  walls  begin 
to  melt.  Then  the  fire  is  put  out,  or  else  a  hole  is  made 
in  the  roof  to  let  the  cold  in,  and  Presto !  in  a  moment 
the  hut  walls  are  beautiful,  shining  ice.  It  makes  the 
snow-house  much  stronger  and  Mr.  Stefansson,  the 
great  Arctic  explorer,  says  that  it  is  also  pleasanter 
to  have  a  hard  wall  and  not  to  brush  off  a  bushel  of 
snow  every  time  you  happen  to  brush  against 
the  ceiling." 

Another  thing  that  interested  Paul  was  the  cellar 
windows.  There  were  two  on  each  side,  and  for  each 
window  Father  made  a  carefully-fitted  screen. 
6  '  Now, ' '  said  Paul.  '  *  I  guess  that  gray  cat  of  Frosts ' 
can't  get  in  and  eat  all  our  cream !"  Paul  had  never 
quite  gotten  over  his  disappointment  the  summer 
before  when,  on  an  especially  hot  day,  they  had 
planned  to  make  ice-cream  and  he  had  gone  down 
cellar  to  find  Billiken,  the  Frosts'  cat,  washing  his 
face  beside  the  empty  cream  jug. 

"No,"  laughed  Father.  "Billiken  will  have  to  be 
pretty  clever  to  get  through  these  screens,  and,  what's 
more,  so  will  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fly  and  all  the  little  flies. 
Lots  of  people  screen  all  the  upstairs  windows  and 


LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS  35; 

then  wonder  where  the  flies  come  from,  when  all  the 
time  the  cellar  windows  are  wide  open." 


. . 


But  they  could  just  as  well  close  the  cellar  win- 
dows,7'said  Paul. 

"No,"  said  Father.  "We  want  a  fresh  current 
of  air  blowing  through  the  cellar  to  keep  it  sweet- 
smelling  and  dry." 

"The  Frosts'  cellar  windows  were  all  shut  when 
I  was  down  there,"  said  Ruth,  "and  they  were  so 
dirty  that  no  light  could  come  in,  and  there  were  piles; 
of  everything  lying  around  and " 

"There,  there,  Ruth,"  said  Mother.  "It  is  not, 
nice  to  visit  people  and  then  talk  about  them  after- 
ward. Never  mind  the  Frosts.  We  have  only  our 
own  house  to  attend  to.  And  I  shall  expect  you  and 
Paul  to  keep  this  cellar  just  as  clean  and  nice  as  it 
is  now — no  old  rubbish,  no  dirt,  no  smells.  Every 
spring,  or  oftener  if  it  needs  it,  we'll  whitewash  the1 
walls  with  lime — I  know  Paul  will  enjoy  slopping  the 
whitewash  around — and  we'll  never  be  ashamed  to 
have  anyone  come  into  our  cellar,  will  we?" 


36  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"No,  indeed,  we  won't,"  chorused  both  children. 

That  evening  Father  looked  up  from  his  reading. 
"Look  here,  folks,"  he  said.  "Here  is  a  picture  that 
will  interest  you.  Here  is  a  palace  that  was  built 
about  six  hundred  years  ago  and  built  under  much 
greater  difficulties  than  we  have  in  building 
your  house. ' ' 

"Whose  palace  was  it?"  asked  Ruth. 

"It  was  the  palace  of  the  Duke  or  Doge  of  Venice. 
You  know  that  Venice  is  really  built  on  a  num- 
ber of  mud  banks,  with  the  water  of  the  sea  flow- 
ing among  them.  Many  of  the  streets  of  Venice 
are  canals  in  which  the  people  use  boats  instead  of 
automobiles  and  cars." 

"But  how  could  they  build  the  houses  on  soft 
mud?"  asked  Ruth. 

' '  They  dug  down  through  the  mud  until  they  came 
to  a  layer  of  clay.  Then  they  drove  great  logs,  stand- 
ing on  end  into  the  clay  close  together.  On  this  they 
laid  a  wooden  platform  and  on  this  platform  the 
houses  were  built. ' ' 

"I  think  they  were  pretty  wise  to  know  how  to 
do  all  that  six  hundred  years  ago,"  said  Paul. 

"They  were,"  said  Mother,  "very  wise  and  very 
hard  working,  or  we  should  not  to-day  be  still  admir- 
ing their  beautiful  buildings." 

"Well,"  said  Ruth,  turning  away  and  looking  out 
to  where  the  foundations  of  the  play-house  rose  under 
the  cherry-tree,  "I  think  our  house  is  going  to 
be  just  as  nice  as  the  Doge's  palace  and  not  half 
so  sloppy!" 


LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS 


37 


I 


38  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Try  Mr.  Weston's  experiment.  Visit  the  basement  of 
your  house.  Make  a  list  of  the  things  about  it  that  make 
a  good  cellar.  How  could  it  be  improved? 

THINGS  TO  KEMEMBEB 

The  first  floors  of  houses  should  not  be  built  directly 
on  the  ground.  Houses  are  sometimes  placed  on  forms 
raised  above  the  ground.  Around  the  platform  a  lattice- 
work is  built  to  keep  animals  out,  but  to  permit  wind  to 
blow  through.  Such  homes  would  be  too  cold  for  north- 
ern climates. 

Well  built  houses  should  have  stone  or  brick  founda- 
tion walls  extending  up  from  the  cellar.  The  best  way  to 
build  such  a  wall  is  shown  by  the  picture.  Sandy  soil  is 
the  best  soil  to  build  on,  because  it  allows  water  to  drain 
through  it  most  quickly.  For  the  same  reason  crushed 
rock  is  placed  under  the  cement  floor  and  under  the  brick 
or  stone  wall.  Since  windows  are  made  in  foundation  walls 
to  let  air  in,  they  should  be  screened  to  keep  flies  and 
animals  out.  Inside  walls  should  be  smoothly  finished. 
They  should  be  whitewashed,  because  the  white  walls 
make  a  cellar  light,  and  because  the  lime  helps  to  keep 
the  cellar  sweet,  dry  and  clean.  A  well  kept  home  must 
have  a  well  kept  cellar. 

THINGS  TO  THINK  ABOUT 

What  is  the  difference  between  the  amounts  of  water 
that  sand,  clay  and  loamy  soil  hold?  Why,  then,  is  one 
kind  better  than  another  for  a  foundation  ? 

Examine  the  foundation  of  a  new  house  going  up.  Is 
it  built  like  the  diagram  in  the  book?  Why  do  they  make 
it  this  way? 

Why  should  we  screen  our  cellar  windows  and  keep 
the  cellar  doors  shut  if  they  are  not  screened  ?  Why  have 
cellar  windows  open?  Are  yours  at  home  open? 

Why  do  good  housekeepers  whitewash  cellars? 


CHAPTER  V 
How  THE  HOUSE  WAS  HEATED 

"AND  now/7  said  Uncle  George,  "how  is  the  play- 
house to  be  heated?" 

"Heated!"  exclaimed  Father,  mopping  his  fore- 
head. "The  idea  of  planning  about  furnaces  and 
stoves  on  a  scorching  day  like  this!" 

"But  it  isn't  going  to  stay  scorching,  Father," 
said  Ruth,  in  her  most  grown-up  manner.  "And  if 
it  is  to  be  a  real  little  house  that  we  can  use 
all  the  year  and  put  extra  company  into  when  the 
other  house  is  full,  we'll  have  to  have  some  sort  of 
stove  or  something." 

"I'd  like  to  live  in  Italy  where  it's  always  warm," 
said  Paul. 

1 '  Always  warm ! ' '  cried  Father.  ' i  Don 't  you  know 
that  winter  in  Italy  is  cold  and  disagreeable  ?  And 
the  worst  of  it  is  that  instead  of  a  good  furnace  or 
radiator,  all  you  have  to  keep  you  warm  is  a  sort  of 
little  affair  something  like  the  stoves  that  chestnut- 
sellers  roast  their  chestnuts  over." 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Ruth.  "I  remember  that  at  the 
Museum  Miss  Scott  showed  us  a  stove  that  was  dug 
up  in  Rome.  She  said  they  burned  charcoal  in  it, 
and  it  had  handles  so  it  could  be  carried  from  one 
room  to  another." 

"Well,  the  Italians  use  just  that  sort  of  little  stove 
or  brazier,  still,"  said  Father.  "It  gives  just  enough 

39 


1  1          I 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  HEATED  41 

warmth  to  make  you  realize  how  cold  you  are." 

"When  I  was  abroad,  a  good  many  years  ago," 

put  in  Uncle  George,  "my  bedroom  was  heated  by  a 


huge  stove  that  went  almost  up  to  the  ceiling  and  was 
made  of  porcelain.  It  never  grew  as  hot  as  one  of 
our  iron  stoves,  but  it  kept  up  a  steady  warmth  that 
was  very  comfortable." 


42  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"Of  course,"  said  Mother,  "we  are  to  have  an 
open  fire  in  the  big  play-room,  but  there  must  be  some 
heat  in  the  bathroom  or  the  pipes  will  freeze." 

"I  think,"  said  Uncle  George,  "that  the  most  sat- 
isfactory plan  for  as  small  a  house  as  this,  will  be  to 


have  a  furnace  in  the  cellar,  which  will  send  warm  air 
up  into  each  room  through  registers."  ' 

"I  don't  think  I  understand  just  how  a  furnace 
works,"  said  Euth.  "Do  you  suppose  Paul  and  I 
could  manage  it?" 

6 '  With  a  little  advice  and  help,  I  think  you  could, '  ' 
replied  Uncle  George.  "  You  see,  Ruthie,  a  furnace  is 
really  not  so  very  hard  to  understand.  I'll  draw  you 
a  diagram  of  one.  Here,  inside,  is  a  stove  that  holds 
the  fire.  Around  the  stove  or  fire-box,  is  built  an 
outside  wall-.  Between  the  fire  and  this  outside 
wall  is  a  space  filled  with  air.  Through  this  pipe 
the  cold  air  comes  in  from  outdoors.  The  fire  warms 
it  and  it  goes  up,  for  you  know  hot  air  always  rises, 
into  these  pipes  and  so  through  the  registers  into  the 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  HEATED 


43 


rooms  upstairs.  Through  this  other  pipe  the  smoke 
goes  off  outdoors.  With  a  little  practice,  it  is  not  hard 
to  manage  a  simple  furnace  like  this. ' ' 

"When  I  was  a  boy  and  went  to  a  little  country 
school/'  said  Father,  "we  had  an  old-fashioned  stove 
that  used  to  get  almost  red-hot,  sometimes.  The  boys 
who  sat  next  to  it  used  to  take  off  their  jackets  and 
complain  of  the  heat,  but  I  was  seated  near  the  door 
and  I  used  to  be  blue  with  the  cold.  Any  boy  who 
whispered  or  was  disorderly  used  to  be  called  down 
in  front  where  the  teacher  could  watch  him.  Many  a 
time,  when  I  was  shiv- 
ering, I  would  whis- 
per, so  that  the  teacher 
would  call  me  down 
front  nearer  to  the 
stove.  Finally,  though, 
some  one  of  the  school 
trustees  who  knew  a 
little  about  right  and 
wrong  ways  of  heating 
rooms  had  the  stove 
jacketed." 

"What   does   that 
mean  ? ' '  asked  Paul. 

"Why  a  sort  of 
metal  fence  was  put 
around  the  stove. 
Under  the  floor  a  pipe,  like  the  cold-air  pipe  in 
the  furnace,  brought  in  fresh  air  from  outside.  This 
air  was  heated,  just  as  it  is  in  a  furnace,  and  then 


44 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


went  out  into  the  room.  After  the  stove  was 
jacketed,  we  were  all  much  more  comfortable.  It 
gave  a  supply  of  fresh  air  which  circulated  all 


through  the  room  instead  of  roasting  some  while 
others  shivered." 

"Is  a  furnace  better  than  steam  heat?"  asked 
Ruth. 

"Sometimes  it  is  and  sometimes  not,"  replied 
Uncle  George.  "It  all  depends  on  the  size  of  your 
house,  where  you  live,  and  a  good  many  other  things. 
There  are  just  three  things  to  remember  in  heating 
and  airing  a  house.  The  house  must  not  be  too  hot, 
nor  uncomfortably  chilly.  We  '11  buy  a  thermometer 
for  the  play-house  and  see  that  the  rooms  are  kept 
between  60  and  68  degrees.  Secondly,  the  air  must 
keep  moving — fresh  air  must  keep  coming  in  and  the 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  HEATED  45 

used  air  must  go  out.  And  thirdly,  the  air  must  not 
get  too  dry.  Furnaces  usually  have  a  place  to  hold 
water,  so  that  the  hot  air  may  be  moistened. " 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Ruth.  "Mother  always  keeps  a 
pan  of  water  on  each  radiator;  don't  you,  Mother?" 

"Yes,"  smiled  Mother,  "and  another  and  much 
prettier  way  to  moisten  the  air  is  by  having  growing 
plants.  The  air  sucks  moisture  from  their  leaves  and 
from  the  moist  earth. 

' '  Goody ! ' '  exclaimed  Ruth.  ' '  We  '11  have  a  lovely 
hot-house  right  in  the  play-room." 

"All  this  talk  about  heat  makes  me  feel  like  being 
moistened,"  said  Father.  "Paul,  what  do  you  say  to 
our  going  in  and  making  the  folks  a  big  pitcher 
of  lemonade  1" 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Find  a  small  healthy  plant  outdoors  or  indoors.  Ar- 
range a  paper  around  the  bottom  of  the  stem,  covering  the 
earth.  Then  place  a  tumbler  over  it,  and  note  what  forms 
in  the  glass.  Also  get  a  glassful  of  water  and  set  another 
tumbler  over  the  one  full  of  water.  Do  these  experiments 
show  you  how  air  may  get  moisture  in  it? 

How  is  your  home  heated  ?  If  by  a  stove  find  out  how 
the  air  about  the*  stove  is  moving.  You  can  do  this  by 
throwing  tiny  bits  of  soft  feathers  into  the  air.  Try  them 
around  windows  and  doors,  too.  Can  you  make  a  drawing 
of  the  room,  stove,  windows  and  put  in  some  little  arrows 
to  show  where  the  feathers  go $ 

If  you  have  a  furnace  go  look  at  it  and  try  to  make 
a  picture  of  the  inside  and  outside  of  it.  How  does  the 
hot  air  get  to  the  rooms?  Test  the  air  in  the  room  with 
feathers,  over  the  register,  by  windows  and  doors  to  see 


46  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

how  it  is  moving.    Do  you  think  furnaces  are  better  or 
worse  than  stoves?    Why? 

Can  you  tell  how  the  heat  from  your  furnace 
is  regulated? 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

Heat  is  supplied  in  most  modern  American  homes  by 
grates,  stoves,  furnaces  or  steam  pipes.  Stoves  and 
grates  usually  make  one  part  of  the  room  very  hot,  leaving 
the  rest  cold.  Study  the  picture  of  a  jacketed  stove  in  this 
chapter  and  learn  why  such  a  stove  makes  the  whole  room 
warm.  Notice  that  a  furnace  is  like  a  large  jacketed 
stove.  The  fresh  air  heated  in  the  jacket  of  the  furnace  is 
distributed  to  the  other  and  cooler  parts  of  the  house. 
This  is  because  cold  and  heavier  air  coming  into  the  jacket 
pushes  the  light  warm  air  up  and  aivay. 

However  a  house  is  heated,  remember  these  points : 

(1)  There  should  be  a  good  thermometer  in  the 
house.     The  temperature  of  the  living  room  should  not 
go  below  60°  F.  nor  above  68°  F.  Bedrooms  may  be  colder. 

(2)  The  air  in  a  room  should    be  kept  moving 
gently  all  the  time. 

(3)  The  air  must  be  kept  moist.    This  can  be  done 
by  having  plants  in  the  room  or  basins  of  water  on  radi- 
ators and  stoves. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

How  does  warm  air  behave,  according  to  your  tests? 
Cold  air?  How  is  the  air  around  a  hot  stove  moving? 

How  does  the  air  move  around  a  jacketed  stove?  Why 
does  this  kind  of  stove  heat  more  of  the  room  than  a 
plain  stove? 

Draw  a  picture  of  a  furnace  to  show  how  the  hot  air 
gets  upstairs,  if  you  can. 

What  has  the  temperature  of  your  schoolroom  been 
every  day  for  the  last  week?  Of  your  living  room  at 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  HEATED  47 

home?  How  near  to  the  correct  temperature  are  these 
temperatures  you  have  observed?  If  the  room  feels  too 
cold  when  the  temperature  is  correct,  what  is  the  wise 
thing  to  do  ? 

How  can  you  be  sure  that  the  air  in  your  room  is  in 
motion?  How  could  you  be  sure  the  air  in  your  room  was 
being  moistened! 

What  are  three  requirements  of  good  heating? 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOMETHING  ABOUT  DRAINS 

" HOUSES  are  something  like  people,  aren't  they?" 
said  Ruth. 

"How  are  they?"  queried  Paul.  Paul  was  not 
so  fond  of  imagining  things  as  Ruth  and  often  called 
her  fancies  silly. 

"Well,"  Ruth  replied,  "if  a  house  is  much  good, 
it  has  to  be  strong  and  straight,  and  it  needs  air  and 
sunshine.  And  it  has  to  have  water  and  light,  just 
as  we  do  and " 

"And  it  isn't  good  for  it  to  have  'wet  feet,'  "  put 
in  Mother,  looking  up  from  her  sewing.  They  were 
all  three  sitting  under  the  cherry-tree  near  the  play- 
house, which  really  began  to  look  like  a  house  now, 
though  Father  said  it  was  only  just  begun  and  that 
finishing  a  house  was  the  hardest  part  of  it.  "An- 
other thing  about  a  house  that  is  very  much  like  a 
person,"  continued  Mother,  "is  that,  to  keep  clean, 
healthy  and  fit  to  live  in,  it  needs  lots  of  water,  and 
that  means  that  there  must  be  a  way  of  getting  rid 
of  the  dirty  water. ' ' 

"Out  on  Uncle  Silas's  farm,"  said  Paul,  "they 
used  to  just  pitch  the  dish-water  out  onto  the  ground 
by  the  kitchen  door. ' ' 

"That  is  a  very  poor  way,"  said  Mother.  "Of 
course,  in  the  country,  people  haven't  always  what 
they  would  like,  but  any  farmer  can  dig  a  drain  to 
carry  off.  the  sewage  from  his  house.  When  the  cellar 

48 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DRAINS 


49 


50 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


of  your  play-house  was  being  built,  you  saw  Uncle 
George  lay  a  pipe,  didn't  you?" 

' '  Oh,  yes, ' '  said  Paul, ' l  he  dug  a  trench  all  the  way 
from  here  over  the  big  house  and  laid  a  drainpipe 
in  it.  It  joins  the  pipe  that  belongs  to  the  big  house, 
and  he  explained  to  us  that  every  house  on  the  street 


has  a  drain  pipe  and  all  the  drain  pipes  run  into  the 
big  .sewer  under  the  street." 

"I'm  glad  you  understand,"  said  Mother.  "Well, 
in  the  country,  there  is  no  big  sewer  for  each  house 
drain  to  empty  into,  so  a  farmer  who  wants  his 
grounds  kept  clean  and  sweet-smelling  lays  a  drain 
and  lets  it  empty  into  a  cesspool  some  distance  from 
the  house." 

"What's  a  cesspool?"  asked  Ruth. 

"A    cesspool,"    replied    Mother,    "is    simply    a 
tank  where  sewage  can  decay  and  do  no  harm- 
that  is,  it  does  no  harm  if  the  tank  is  well  made 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DRAINS  51 

and  does  not  let  the  sewage  leak  through  into  the 
ground  and  fill  it  with  germs.  Sewage  may  not  con- 
tain any  disease  germs,  but  it  is  always  smelly  and 
unpleasant  and  it  may  hold  the  germs  of  typhoid 
fever  and  other  serious  diseases.  The  tank  should  be 
made  of  brick  and  cemented,  so  that  it  is  water-tight.- 
In  this  tank  the  sewage  will  decay,  and  after  it  is 
entirely  decayed  the  gas  and  liquid,  though  they  may 
not  smell  quite  pleasant,  will  not  cause  any  disease. 
If  you  look  at  a  picture  of  such  a  tank,  you  will  see 
that  the  sewage  comes  in  through  a  drain  at  one  side 
and  the  gas  and  liquid  go  out  through  a  pipe  at  the 
other  side.  This  pipe  carries  them  off  underground 
to  some  distance,  but  they  have  no  disease  germs  in 
them.  The  germs  were  killed  in  the  tank." 

Paul  had  been  examining  some  of  the  pipes  which 
the  plumber  had  left  behind  on  the  porch.  "Why 
do  they  make  a  bend  in  the  pipe  like  this?"  he  asked. 

For  answer,  Mother  drew  a  little  sketch  with  her 
scissors  on  the  dry  ground  at  their  feet.  "Here,"  she 
said,  "the  dirty  water  runs  down  the  pipe,  followed 
by  the  clean  water  with  which  we  wash  out  the  tub  or 
sink,  or  toilet,  or  whatever  the  pipe  leads  from.  It 
flows  down  and  into  the  drain  and  so  into  the  sewer 
or  cesspool.  But,  as  you  know,  sewage  smells  bad 
and  we  want  to  keep  these  disagreeable  smells  out  of 
our  house.  So  just  under  the  tub,  or  sink,  or  toilet, 
there  is  a  bend  like  this  in  the  pipe  and  another  bend 
where  the  pipe  joins  the  drain  under  the  floor.  When 
the  water  flows  down  the  pipe,  some  of  it  always  stops 
at  these  bends— plumbers  call  them  traps,  because 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


they  catch  and  hold  the  water.     The  water  in  the 
trap  acts  as  a  stopper  to  keep  the  bad  smell  from 

coming  back  up  the  pipe 
into  the  house." 

"I  should  think/' 
said  Ruth,  "that  if  any 
string  or  rag  or  anything 
went  down  the  pipe,  it 
would  catch  in  the  trap. ' ' 
"It  does,"  said 
Mother,  "and  that  is  one 
reason  why  you  should 
never  throw  things  into 
any  basin  or  sink  or 
toilet.  They  sometimes 
actually  stop  up  the  pipe 
and  sometimes  they  interfere  with  the  stopper  of 
water  that  keeps  the  bad  smells  from  coming  up." 

"I  don't  see  how  just  a  little  piece  of  string  or  rag 
could  do  that,"  said  Paul. 

"Get  me  an  empty  tumbler  and  one  with  water  in 
it  and  I'll  show  you,"  said  Mother. 

Paul  came  running  back  with  the  tumblers, 
and  Mother  set  them  side  by  side.  Then  she  cut 
a  strip  of  muslin,  wet  it,  put  one  end  into  the  tumbler 
of  water  and  the  other  end  into  the  empty  glass. 
"Now  watch,"  she  said.  The  children  bent  low  over 
the  glasses.  Water  began  to  drip  from  the  cloth  into 
the  empty  tumbler.  Very  slowly,  the  water  in  the  full 
glass  began  to  sink,  low  and  lower,  while  the  glass  that 
had  been  empty  slowly  filled. 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DRAINS  53 

"Now  that,"  said  Mother,  "is  exactly  what  hap- 
pens when  a  string  or  piece  of  rag  or  hair  gets  into 


the  plumbing.  The  water  runs  up  along  the  rag, 
or  whatever  it  may  be,  over  the  bend  in  the  pipe, 
just  as  it  did  over  the  edge  of  the  glass,  and  on  down 
the  pipe  just  as  it  did  into  the  other  glass.  Then 
what  becomes  of  our  water-stopper  that  was  to  keep 
out  the  smells'?" 

4  *  Why, ' '  said  Paul.  ' 1 1  see.  It  just  runs  all  away 
down  the  pipe  and  there  is  no  water  to  keep  the  smells 
from  coming  up." 

"What  is  this  sort  of  knob  on  the  pipe  for1?" 
asked  Ruth. 

"That  unscrews,"  Mother  answered,  "so  that  if 
anything  is  caught  in  the  pipe,  or  if  anything  valu- 
able should  go  down  it  by  mistake,  it  can  be  opened. 
I  had  a  friend  who  discovered,  after  washing  her 
hands,  that  the  diamond  was  gone  out  of  her  ring. 
She  was  ready  to  cry,  but  her  husband  unscrewed  the 
pipe  and  there  in  the  trap  lay  the  diamond." 

"Wasn't  that  lucky!"  exclaimed  Ruth. 

"Indeed  it  was,"  said  Mother.  "Another  reason 
for  having  the  trap  fixed  so  that  it  can  be  opened  is 
that  beneath  sinks  the  trap  often  gets  full  of  grease 


54  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

from  the  dishes  and  pots.  When  grease  is  hot  it  is 
liquid,  you  know,  but  when  it  gets  into  the  cold  pipe 
it  cools  into  a  solid  cake.  Often  when  the  pipe  is 
stopped  the  plumber  will  take  a  whole  handful  of 
grease  out  of  the  trap. 

"Is  that  why  you  told  me  not  to  pour  the  grease 
from  the  frying-pan  into  the  sink  ? ' '  asked  Paul. 

"Partly  because  of  that  and  partly  because  we 
never  waste  any  grease,  but  use  it  again  or  make  soap 
of  it,"  said  Mother.  "You  see,  being  thrifty  really 
helps  in  being  clean  and  being  healthy,  for  wasteful- 
ness is  likely  to  mean  a  houseful  of  unused  things 
that  collect  dirt,  a  garbage  pail  full  of  decaying  food 
and  pipes  full  of  valuable  grease." 

"Suppose  there  isn't  any  plumber  and  you  can't 
get  the  pipe  open,"  said  Ruth. 

"I  pour  a  lot  of  very  hot  water  with  washing  soda 
in  it  down  the  pipe.  The  soda  turns  the  grease  into 
a  sort  of  soap  and  the  hot  water  washes  it  away,  down 
the  pipe.  By  the  way,  if  you  ever  unscrew  a  trap, 
be  sure  to  have  a  pan  underneath,  or  you  will  have  a 
flood  of  water  on  the  floor." 

"Dear  me,"  exclaimed  Paul.  "Seems  to  me 
plumbing  is  lots  of  bother.  I  think  I'd  rather  be  an 
Indian  and  just  wash  in  a  brook  and  not  bother  with 
any  old  pipes." 

"All  right,"  said  Ruth,  promptly,  "you  can  go 
and  live  like  an  Indian  with  Jim  Nixon,  and  I'll 
keep  house  here.  I  just  love  the  play-house — pipes 
and  all." 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DRAINS  55 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Try  Mrs.  Weston's  experiment.  Have  you  ever  seen 
liquids  run  up  through  tiny  pores- in  paper  or  cloth?  Any- 
where else  ?  Scientific  people  call  this  capillarity.  It  helps 
us  blot  our  letters,  burn  oil  through  lamp  wicks,  helps 
plants  get  water  from  soil. 

Try  these  experiments  also.  They  will  help  to  under- 
stand this  chapter.  Collect  two  tumblers  and  a  piece  of 
clean  rubber  piping.  Fill  one  tumbler  with  water.  Place 
this  tumbler  on  a  pile  of  books  and  stand  the  empty 
tumbler  below  it.  Then  put  the  rubber  tube  in  the  glass 
of  water  and  suck  on  it  till  the  tube  is  full  of  water.  Keep 
one  end  under  water  in  the  first  glass.  Hold  the  other  end 
shut  and  lower  this  end  into  the  empty  tumbler.  What 
happens ?  You  have  made  a  siphon.  Have  you  ever  seen 
one  used!  For  what?  Do  you  notice  that  by  it  you  can 
make  water  run  i  i  up  hill ' 9  over  the  bend  in  the  tube  ?  Find 
a  siphon  in  the  kitchen  or  bathroom  plumbing.  Experi- 
ment with  your  siphon  to  find  out  what  will  prevent  it 
from  working  well. 

If  your  teacher  can  get  you  a  "thistle"  tube  and  can 
put  two  bends  in  it  like  a  letter  N  you  can  then  see  how  a 
water-trap  wrorks.  Pour  some  colored  water  quickly  into 
the  thistle  end  of  the  tube.  How  does  the  water  act? 
Have  you  a  siphon?  Find  the  "trap"  that  catches  the 
water.  Do  you  see  that  it  would  act  like  a  stopper  to 
keep  back  the  smells  ? 

THINGS  TO  EEMEMBEB 

Sewage  and  all  waste  water  must  be  removed  from  our 
homes.  In  the  city  the  sewage  from  the  house  is  gathered 
into  a  drain  pipe.  This  drain  pipe  runs  underground  to 
the  street  sewer.  This  sewer  joins  the  great  main  sewers 
which  carry  off  the  waste  material. 

In  the  country  it  is  wise  to  have  drain  pipes  also. 
These  drain  pipes  should  carry  the  sewage  into  a  cesspool. 


56  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

The  cesspool  is  a  tank  underground  with  brick  and 
cemented  walls  that  must  not  permit  any  sewage  to 
escape  into  the  soil.  Sewage  may  contain  typhoid  or  other 
disease  germs.  We  know  that  these  may  make  water  sup- 
plies dangerous  if  they  get  into  the  ground  and  water.  If 
sewage  is  kept  in  a  tight  cesspool  the  sewage  decays  and  is 
changed  into  gas  and  water.  The  disease  germs  will  die 
in  time  with  all  their  food  gone.  The  gas  and  water  can 
then  safely  be  carried  off  underground  by  a  second  pipe. 
In  our  houses  we  prevent  unpleasant  sewage  smells 
from  coming  into  our  rooms  by  water  traps  in  the  waste 
pipes.  These  traps  are  little  siphons  such  as  you  made 
in  your  experiments.  These  traps  can  be  opened,  in 
case  they  should  become  stopped  up  through  carelessness. 
To  keep  a  trap  working,  remember : 

1.  Never  to   throw  rags  or   strings   into  basin,   tub 
or  toilet. 

2.  Never  to  throw  grease  into  a  basin — it  is  wasteful 
as  well  as  careless. 

3.  Eun  washing  soda  and  hot  water  through  the  trap 
once  in  a  while  to  cleanse  it. 

4.  Always  run  clean  water  through  the  pipes  after 
using  a  basin,  etc. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

How  is  the  waste  from  your  house  removed!  What 
does  your  city  do  with  its  sewage? 

WTmt  happens  to  sewage  in  a  cesspool?  Why  must 
people  be  very  careful  to  have  cesspools  and  drains  very 
carefully  and  tightly  built  to  prevent  leaking? 

Find  the  ' i  traps ' '  in  your  plumbing  at  home.  How  do 
they  work?  Did  the  experiment  made  explain  this  to  you? 

Why  do  houses  that  haven  >t  been  occupied  a  long  time 
sometimes  have  a  smell  of  ' ' i  sewer  gas ' '  in  them.  What 
happened  to  the  traps  ? 

What  can  you  do  to  keep  your  traps  at  home  working? 


CHAPTER  VII 

How  THE  HOUSE  WAS  LIGHTED 

"WHAT  did  people  do  before  electric  lights  were 
invented  ?"  asked  Paul.  Having  spent  the  afternoon 
helping  Uncle  George  to  put  in  the  wires  for  the 
electric  lights  in  the  play-house,  he  felt  that  he  had 
earned  an  extra  slice  of  cake  for  supper. 

Mother  passed  him  the  cake-plate  as  she  answered, 
"I  suppose  the  very  earliest  men  of  all,  who  lived  in 
caves  and  tree-tops,  just  picked  a  piece  of  burning 
wood  out  of  their  fire  and  carried  it  for  a  torch. ' ' 

"But  that  wouldn't  be  much  good  if  you  wanted 
to  read  or  sew,"  said  Ruth. 

"No,  but  cave  and  tree-top  people  have  no  books 
and  very  little  clothing,  and  go  to  bed  with  the  birds, 
so  they  have  hardly  any  need  of  light  in  their  houses, " 
replied  Father. 

"Why  did  you  put  electric  lights  into  the  play- 
house, when  we  have  to  have  gas  anyhow  to  cook  with 
in  the  kitchen?"  asked  Ruth. 

"Because,"  said  Father,  "gas  uses  up  the  air— 
a  gas  jet  may  use  up  as  much  air  as  two  people.  Then, 
too,  it  makes  the  room  hot,  and  besides  the  gas  jet  may 
possibly  leak  and  gas  is  very  poisonous.  We  have  to 
use  it  in  the  kitchen  to  cook  with,  but  you  children 
will  have  to  be  very  careful." 

"I  read  about  a  man  who  had  never  seen  gas," 

57 


58 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


said  Paul,  "and  when 
he  went  to  bed  he 
blew  it  out  and  it 
killed  him." 

"There  are  not 
many  people  nowa- 
days who  would  do 
that/'  remarked 
Mother,  "but  many 
people  are  very  care- 
less about  turning  the 
gas  entirely  off.  Al- 
ways turn  the  gas-key 
just  as  far  as  it  will  go 
and  when  you  light  the 
gas,  strike  your  match 
first.  Don't  turn  the  gas  on  and  then  go  hunting  for  a 
match,  as  I  Ve  seen  some  people  do." 

"But,  Mother,  what  did  they  do  before  someone 
invented  gas?"  persisted  Ruth. 

"The  first  lights  were  lamps,"  said  Mother. 
"Don't  you  remember  that  lovely  old  Eoman  lamp 
that  Professor  Fielding  showed  us?  Almost  as 
soon  as  people  began  to  build  real  houses  they  needed 
lights,  for  the  early  houses  had  very  few  windows 
and  very  tiny  ones.  The  first  lamps  were  made 
of  pottery  or  bronze  and  filled  with  olive  oil  or  some 
sort  of  vegetable  oil  or  animal  fat,  for  kerosene  was 
unknown  in  those  days.  The  wick  floated  in  the  oil 
and  made  a  feeble  light." 

"Oh,  yes,"  cried  Paul.    "Our  teacher  told  us  a 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  LIGHTED  59 

story  about  Cupid  and  Psyche.  She  bent  over  him 
with  a  lamp  and  the  oil  dropped  on  him  and  woke  him 
up  and  he  was  angry  and  went  away  and  left  her.  She 
had  a  lamp  just  like  Professor  Fielding's." 


"And  what  did  they  invent  next  after  lamps ?" 
asked  Ruth. 

"Well,  you  see,"  said  Father,  " lamps  are  rather 
a  nuisance,  because  you  have  to  keep  filling  them  with 
oil,  and,  as  Paul  says,  sometimes  the  oil  spills  and 
makes  trouble.  So  someone  thought  that  wax  or 
tallow  would  be  more  solid  and  handy  than  oil.  They 
melted  the  wax  or  tallow  and  dipped  the  wick  into  it, 
let  it  cool  and  harden,  then  dipped  it  again  and  kept 
on  in  this  wray  until  the  candle  was  as  thick  as  they 
wanted.  That  is  the  reason  that  we  read  in  old  books 
about ' tallow-dips' — it  means  candles  that  were  made 
by  dipping  the  wick  into  tallow.  Nowadays,  candles 
are  more  often  made  by  laying  the  wick  in  molds  and 
pouring  the  wax  or  tallow  onto  it." 

"They  must  have  invented  candles  a  long  time 
ago,"  said  Ruth,  "for  we  learned  something  in  Sun- 
day-school about  not  hiding  a  light,  but  putting  it  in 
a  candlestick,  so  people  could  see  it." 

"Yes,"  said  Uncle  George,  "candles  are  so  old 
that  nobodv  knows  who  made  the  first  one,  There  is 


60 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


no  prettier,  softer  light  than  candle-light,  but  they 
flicker  and  aren't  bright  enough  to  work  by." 
"I  like  to  see  them  in  church,"  said  Ruth. 
66  All  the  churches  since  churches  were  first  built," 
said  Mother,  "have  used  candles.   Long  before  Christ 
was  born  candles  were  burnt  in  the  Jewish  temples. 
You  will  still  see  great  candle-sticks  with  seven 
branches  in  many  Jewish  homes." 

"Oh,  yes,  I  saw  a  beautiful  one  at  Sadie 
Schwartz's,"  said  Ruth.  "Can  we  have  candles  in 
the  play-house,  Mother?" 

"No,"  said  Mother.  "I  don't  like  to  have  you 
children  carry  lights  about,  for  fear  of  accidents." 

"Are  we  going  to  have 
a  lamp?"  asked  Paul. 

"I'd  rather  not,  "said 
Mother,  doubtfully;  "you 
see,  lamps  have  to  be 
cleaned  and  filled  every 
day,  so  that  they  will  burn 
well,  and  then,  too,  lamps 
are  rather  dangerous." 

"How  are  they?" 
queried  Paul. 

In  the  first  place,  they  tip  over  easily  and  the 
oil  blazes  up  and  may  set  the  house  on  fire.  Then, 
if  they  are  not  handled  carefully,  they  some- 
times explode." 

"How  can  that  happen?"  asked  Ruth. 
"By  not  blowing  them  out  properly.     Do  you 
know  how  to  blow  out  a  lamp?" 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  LIGHTED 


61 


62  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"Why,  I  thought  you  just  blew,"  said  Paul. 

"  '  Just  blowing7  is  likely  to  blow  the  flame  down 
into  the  oil  and  cause  an  explosion, ' '  replied  Mother. 
<  <  T^  right  way  is  t0  turn  the  flame  iow  an(j  then  blow 

across  the  top  of  the  chimney,  never  straight  down 
into  it." 

"Do  lamps  eat  up  air?"  asked  Ruth. 

"Yes,  and  they  make  the  room  hot,  and  often  smell 
unpleasant.  So  now  you  see  why  Father  and  I  de- 
cided that  you  had  better  have  electric  lights  in  the 
play-house.  The  electric  wire  glows  in  its  little  glass 
house  and  does  not  burn  up  any  air  or  cause  any  dan- 
ger, if  the  wires  are  fixed  properly." 

"Another  thing  that  makes  electric  lights  safer," 
said  Uncle  George,  "is  that  they  do  not  need  any 
matches.  It's  a  wonder  to  me  that  in  the  olden  days 

they  managed  at  all, 


with  nothing  but 
candles  and  lamps  to 
burn  and  no  matches 
to  light  anything." 

"No  matches!"  ex- 
claimed Ruth.    "How 
in  the  world  did  they  manage  ?" 

"Next  time  you  come  over  to  our  house,"  replied 
Uncle  George,  "I'll  show  you  an  old  tinder-box 
that  belonged  to  my  great-grandfather.  They 
used  to  strike  a  flint  on  a  piece  of  steel,  and  when  it 
made  a  spark  they  would  catch  the  spark  on  a 
piece  of  tow." 

"My,  what  a  nuisance!"  exclaimed  Ruth.    "And 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  LIGHTED  63 

now  we  still  have  the  candles  and  lamps,  and  gas  and 
electricity  besides." 

"I  wonder,  Ruth,"  said  Uncle  George,  "what  sort 
of  new,  unknown  light  your  great-great-grandchil- 
dren will  be  using." 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Let  us  see  how  a  flame  "uses  up"  air.  Find  a  flat 
thin  cork,  about  an  inch  across,  get  a  small  birthday-cake 
candle  and  fix  it  in  the  middle  of  the  cork.  Float  cork  in 
a  pan  of  water.  Now  get  a  tumbler  and  after  lighting  the 
candle,  slowly  invert  the  glass  over  the  floating  candle. 
Press  down  into  the  water.  Notice  how  the  candle  behaves. 
Notice  how  the  cork  behaves  after  the  candle  stops  burn- 
ing. 'Can  you  tell  why  more  water  could  come  into  the 
glass  ?  Does  this  help  us  to  understand  why  a  flame  ' '  uses 
up"  air!  Try  to  find  out  what  part  of  air  the  flame  used 
up.  Is  this  an  important  part  of  air! 

G-et  some  modeling  clay.  Find  pictures  of  early  lamps, 
such  as  those  used  by  the  Romans,  and  model  an  open 
lamp.  Perhaps  you  can  have  it  baked  in  an  oven.  Try 
putting  some  oil  and  a  wick  in  it,  as  the  ancient  people 
did.  Is  it  a  good  lamp?  What  does  it  need,  do  you  think? 

Try  to  make  a  dipped  candle.*  It  can  be  done  with 
tallow  or  parafine,  and  some  very  coarse,  soft  cotton  cord 
for  a  wick.  Try  to  scheme  out  a  way  to  melt  the  wax 
without  burning  it,  and  a  way  to  dip  the  wicks  so  that  they 
will  hang  straight  and  harden  into  good  candles.  You 
will  have  to  look  at  pictures  and  read  in  books  on  Colonial 
life  to  get  ideas  before  you  make  your  own  plans. 

*  Examine  a  good  modern  lamp  and  pick  out  the  parts  of  it  that  are 
not  found  in  the  ancient  lamp.  How  does  each  new  part  add  to  the  useful- 
ness of  the  lamp. 

Examine  an  electric  bulb.  Where  does  the  light  seem  to  come  from? 
Is  there  any  flame?  Do  you  know  if  there  is  any  air  inside  the  little  bulb? 
Does  it  need  air  to  give  us  light? 


64  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBEB 

As  soon  as  houses  were  built  people  had  to  have  arti- 
ficial light.  The  first  artificial  light  was  probably  a  torch, 
and  very  soon  a  poor  kind  of  lamp.  Later  chimneys  and 
burners  were  invented  for  these  lamps.  They  permitted 
the  flame  to  burn  brighter  and  gave  better  light.  Candles, 
first  dipped,  then  molded,  have  been  used  since  very  early 
times.  These  forms  of  light  burned  vegetable  oils  or  ani- 
mal fats,  which  our  ancestors  early  learned  to  use.  Much 
later  men  discovered  that  they  could  get  oil  and  gas  from 
the  earth.  Then  they  learned  to  get  gas  from  coal.  People 
began  to  use  kerosene  lamps  and  gas  for  lighting 
and  cooking. 

All  of  these  things,  gas,  oil,  candles,  give  light  from 
flames.  Flames  give  heat.  Flames  use  up  oxygen  from 
the  air  and  put  a  gas  called  carbon  dioxide  back  into  it 
just  as  people  do  when  they  breathe.  Matches  are  needed 
to  light  these  kinds  of  lights,  and  matches  are  dangerous 
if  we  are  careless.  Electricity  gives  light  by  making  the 
little  wires  in  the  bulb  so  hot  that  they  glow  when  we  turn 
on  the  current.  For  these  reasons  electric  lights  are  bet- 
ter than  gas,  oil  or  candles.  If  you  do  not  use  electricity 
some  good  rules  to  remember  about  lights  are: 

The  wick  of  a  lamp  must  always  be  clean  and 
well  trimmed. 

A  lamp  must  be  well  filled  before  lighting. 

Turn  up  the  wick  before  lighting.  Then  put  on  the 
chimney  and  turn  wick  down  till  it  gives  the  best  light. 

When  you  want  to  put  out  the  light  turn  down  the  wick 
till  the  flame  is  low.  Then  blow  across  the  chimney. 

Never  put  a  lamp  where  it  could  be  tipped  over  by 
people  or  by  curtains  blowing  against  it. 

Never  take  candles  or  lamps  into  closets  to  look 
for  things. 

When  you  light  the  gas  always  strike  your  match  and 
hold  it  near  the  gas  jet  before  you  turn  on  the  gas. 


HOW  THE  HOUSE  WAS  LIGHTED  65 

Never  go  to  sleep  leaving  the  gas  or  a  lamp  burning 
unless  there  is  some  responsible  person  to  look  after 
the  light. 

Can  you  think  of  other  safety  rules  about  lights! 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

How  did  people  in  the  old  Roman  and  Bible  times  light 
their  homes  ? 

Do  you  think  the  people  in  Colonial  times  used  any 
lights  in  their  homes  that  we  have?  What  have  we  that 
is  better  than  their  light?  Did  they  light  their  churches? 
Their  streets?  How?  Can  you  compare  the  amount  of 
artificial  light  they  used  with  what  we  use?  What  are 
some  reasons  for  the  differences  ? 

What  three  kinds  of  lights  are  flames  ?  Why  are  such 
lights  not  as  good  as  electric  lights  ? 

How  can  we  avoid  dangerous  accidents  when  using  gas 
or  oil,  either  in  lights  or  stoves? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

KITCHEN  COMFORT 

"I  DO  think  the  kitchen  is  the  very  nicest,  most  in- 
teresting room  in  the  whole  house,"  said  Ruth. 

She  was  standing  in  the  center  of  the  "cunning 
little  kitchen"  for  which  she  had  begged  and  which 
Mother  had  agreed  it  would  be  well  to  have.  Father 
had  hesitated  on  account  of  the  cost,  but  Mother  had 
said,  "I've  always  wanted  Ruth  to  have  cooking  les- 
sons at  school,  but  Miss  Scott  tells  me  they  have  no 
place  to  do  it.  Now  my  plan  is  to  offer  to  let  Miss 
Scott  bring  over  the  class  once  a  week.  It  will  be 
good  for  Ruth — I  simply  have  not  time  to  teach  her 
myself — and  it  will  be  nice  to  feel  that  we  are  not 
being  selfish  with  the  house,  but  are  making  it  useful 
to  the  children's  friends." 

"Oh,  goody!"  exclaimed  Ruth.  "I'm  going  to 
invite  all  the  girls  and  we'll  form  a  Junior  House- 
keepers' Club  and— 

"Where  do  I  come  in?"  protested  Paul. 

"You  shall  be  in  all  the  time,  Paul,"  said  Mother, 
patting  his  shoulder.  "I  don't  intend  that  my  son 
shall  be  perfectly  helpless  when  there  is  no  woman 
around  to  cook  for  him.  Some  of  the  most  famous 
cooks  in  the  world  have  been  men — so  you  and  the 
other  boys  shall  have  a  cooking  club,  and  we'll  see 
whether  the  boys  or  the  girls  will  win  first  prize 
for  their  cookery." 

66 


KITCHEN  COMFORT  67 

Mother  and  the  children  had  spent  a  busy  morning 
putting  the  kitchen  to  rights,  washing  out  the  new 
sink,  brushing  off  the  stove,  putting  away  the  dishes 
and  pans  and  deciding  where  the  table  should  stand. 


"I  really  think/'  said  Ruth,  with  a  satisfied  nod  of 
her  head,  "that  we  planned  it  all  very  sensibly 
The  china  closet  is  right  near  the  sink,  so  that  I 
can  put  the  clean  dishes  away  as  I  wipe  them.  The 
closet  for  the  flour  and  sugar  and  things,  with  this 
nice  space  down  below  for  the  pots  and  pans  is 
handy  to  the  stove,  and " 


68  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"I  think,"  interrupted  Paul,  "that  the  table  had 
better  stand  right  here  by  the  stove.  Then,  when  we 
want  to  lift  anything  hot  and  heavy  off  the  fire  we 
can  set  it  right  on  the  table." 

"Good  work,  son,"  said  Mother.  "I'm  glad  to 
see  that  there  is  a  brain  under  those  curls  of  yours. 
We'll  put  the  table  by  the  stove,  as  you  suggest. 
Now  where  shall  we  place  the  refrigerator  ? ' ' 

The  refrigerator  was  Ruth's  especial  pride  and 
joy — it  seemed  so  like  real  housekeeping  to  have  a 
genuine,  grown-f oiks '  refrigerator.  To  be  sure,  it  was 
only  lent  by  Aunt  Louise  for  the  summer,  but  Ruth 
rejoiced  in  it  just  the  same  and  secretly  hoped  that 
when  Aunt  Louise  came  back  from  the  mountains  in 
the  fall  she  would  forget  to  ask  for  the  refrigerator. 
The  only  trouble  was  that  it  was  so  big.  Ruth's 
brow  puckered.  "If  only  the  kitchen  were  a  little 
bigger,"  she  sighed. 

"I  have  it!"  cried  Mother.  "We'll  set  it  right 
out  here  on  the  back  porch.  The  ice  won't  melt  so 
fast  as  it  would  indoors  and  it  will  be  very  convenient. 
One  great  thing  in  planning  a  kitchen  is  to  arrange 
all  the  furniture  so  as  to  save  steps.  I'll  never  forget 
my  grandmother's  kitchen.  It  was  huge  and  she 
must  have  walked  miles  back  and  forth  from  stove 
to  table  and  table  to  closet  every  day." 

"I'm  going  to  wash  the  refrigerator  out  right 
now,"  declared  Ruth. 

"Are  you  sure  you  know  just  how?"  asked 
Mother. 

"Yes,  indeed;  I've  helped  Aunt  Louise  do  it." 


KITCHEN  COMFORT  69 

So  Ruth  filled  the  new  pail  with  hot  water  into  which 
she  carefully  poured  a  little  ammonia.  She  took  the 
wire  racks  out  of  the  refrigerator  and  scrubbed  each 
one.  Then  she  scrubbed  out  the  whole  inside  of  the 
refrigerator,  letting  the  hot  ammonia-water  run 
off  down  the  pipe  into  the  drip-pan.  "Now  I'm 
going  to  get  some  ice  from  the  other  house,"  she 
said,  triumphantly. 

"Not  yet,  dear,"  said  Mother.  "When  you  have 
just  scrubbed  it  with  hot  water,  you  must  let  it  cool, 
or  your  ice  will  all  melt.  But  I'm  glad  to  see  that  you 
know  how  to  keep  a  refrigerator  sweet  and  clean.  It 
ought  to  be  cleaned  this  way  every  week,  and  if  any- 
thing is  spilled  in  the  refrigerator,  it  ought  to  be 
washed  up  at  once — not  left  to  get  sour  and  smelly. 
Besides,  the  pipe  is  likely  to  get  clogged  if  you  don't." 

"Mrs.  Frost  had  an  awful  time  with  her  refriger- 
ator last  week,"  said  Paul.  "Robert  went  to  it  to 
get  some  grape- juice  for  himself  and  me,  and  we 
forgot  and  left  the  door  open.  And  what  do  you 
think  that  sly  old  Billiken  did?  He  got  in  and  ate 
up  a  whole  platter  of  cold  chicken  and  then  he  heard 
Mrs.  Frost  coming  and  jumped  and  upset  the  mayon- 
naise and  a  bottle  of  cream.  Mrs.  Frost  never  found 
out  about  it  until  next  day  when  she  went  to  get  break- 
fast. She  was  awfully  cross  at  Billiken  and  at  Rob- 
ert, too — she  said  it  took  her  an  hour  to  get  it  cleaned 
up,  because  the  mayonnaise  all  got  down  the  pipe. 
She  had  to  pour  down  boiling  water  and  ammonia  to 
dissolve  the  grease." 

While  Paul  had  been  talking,  Mother  had  been 


70 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


putting  the  broom  and  whisk-broom  and  dustpan, 
with  the  pail  and  cleaning  cloth,  into  the  corner  closet 


on  the  porch.  "There,"  said  she;  "now  you  will  al- 
ways know  just  where  to  find  your  cleaning  things 
and  they  won't  be  in  the  kitchen  with  your  food  and 
dishes.  I  think  Uncle  George  had  a  bright  thought 
when  he  planned  this  porch  closet  and  this  box  for  the 
garbage  pail  and  rubbish  tin. ' '  As  she  spoke,  Mother 
threw  a  handful  of  paper  into  the  rubbish  tin.  It 
stood,  with  the  garbage  pail,  in  a  long  box  with  a 
hinged  cover,  -on  the  porch.  Uncle  George  had  made 
this  box  so  that  all  dirt  might  be  kept  out  of  the 
kitchen  and  so  that  there  should  be  no  need  of  having 
the  garbage  and  rubbish  in  sight. 


KITCHEN  COMFORT  71 


As  she  closed  the  box-lid,  Mother  added,  "It  will 
be  part  of  your  work  every  day,  Paul,  to  empty  your 
garbage  into  the  big  pail  at  the  other  house,  and  to 
wash  out  this  pail  well  with  hot,  soapy  water  and 
washing  soda.  And  Ruth  is  to  keep  the  rubbish  in 
the  other  tin  emptied  into  the  barrel  at  the  big  house, 
or,  in  winter  time,  the  rubbish  can  be  burned  in 
the  furnace." 

While  she  was  talking,  Paul  had  been  unwrapping 
a  parcel  that  lay  on  the  table.  "What  a  jolly,  big 
dishpan ! "  he  exclaimed.  ' i  Just  the  thing  to  give  my 
turtle  a  swim  in!" 

"No  you  don't!"  cried  Ruth.  "The  idea  of 
putting  your  dirty  old  turtle  into  our  lovely 
clean  dishpan!" 

"But  Lightning  isn't  dirty,"  protested  Paul.  He 
had  named  his  pet  "Lightning"  because  he  had  raced 
him  with  every  other  pet  turtle  in  Pleasantville  and 
he  had  beaten  them  all. 

"Well,  I  don't  think  we  exactly  care  to  have  him 
mixed  up  with  the  dishes  we  eat  from,  dear,"  put  in 
Mother.  "And  speaking  of  dishes,- let's  get  them  all 
washed  and  put  into  the  china  closet. ' '  As  she  spoke, 
Mother  tied  a  big  apron  on  Ruth  and  two  others  on 
Paul  and  herself.  Next  she  put  two  dishpans  into  the 
sink,  one  full  of  hot,  soapy  water  and  the  other  with 
clear,  hot  water. 

"Oh,  do  let  me  wash,"  begged  Ruth.  She  seized 
the  new  soap-shaker  and  stirred  the  water  into  a 
foamy  flood.  Each  dish  was  carefully  rubbed  with  a 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


KITCHEN  COMFORT 


I 


clean  dish-cloth,  rinsed  in  the 
hot  water  and  set  to  drain  on 
the  drain-board.  Mother  wiped 
them  with  a  soft  dish-towel  and 
Paul  set  them  in  shining  rows 
on  the  newly-scrubbed  shelves 
of  the  china  closet.  Then  the 
dish-cloth  and  towel  were 
wrashed  and  hung  out  on  the 
lilac  bush  by  the  back  porch  to 
dry  and  the  dish-pans  were 
wrashed  out  with  fresh,  soapy 
water  and  hung  under  the  sink. 
As  she  untied  her  apron,  Ruth 
picked  up  another  parcel. 
"What  is  this?"  she  asked. 
' '  That  is  a  chain  pot-cleaner,  for 
scouring  sticky  pots  and  pans, ' ' 
replied  Mother.  "I  hope  you 
will  be  careful  cooks  and  not  let 
your  things  burn,  but  if  you  do, 
this,  with  some  sort  of  scouring 
powder,  will  help  to  clean  them. 
And  this  odd,  long  brush  is  to 
go  down  into  milk  bottles  and 


74 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


pitchers,  where  your  fingers  and  dish-cloths  can't 
reach.  You  know,  there  is  nothing  more  disagreeable 
than  a  bottle  or  pitcher  with  bits  of  sour  milk  or 
decaying  food  in  it." 


"What  on  earth  did  people  do  before  soap  was 
invented  ? ' '  said  Ruth. 

"When  we  were  out  camping,"  said  Paul,  "if  we 
forgot  and  left  the  soap  behind  we  used  to  scrub  our- 
selves with  sand. ' ' 

"That  is  just  what  people  iised  to  do  before  they 
had  soap,"  said  Mother.  "They  scrubbed  with  sand 


KITCHEN  COMFORT  75 

or  wood-ashes.  But  people  have  used  soap  almost 
since  the  days  of  Christ." 

Ruth  had  been  investigating  the  gas-stove.  "I 
wish  you'd  show  me  how  to  light  the  oven,"  she  said. 
"I  tried  to  light  the  oven  at  Aunt  Louise's  house  one 
day,  and  it  went  'pop'  and  scared  me." 

There  is  only  one  thing  to  remember  about  light- 
ing a  gas  oven,"  said  Mother.  "You  must  always 
open  the  door  first.  Then,  if  the  oven  has  what  is 
called  a  i pilot-light,'  turn  that  on  and  then  turn  on 
the  gas.  If  there  is  no  pilot-light,  be  sure  to  light 
your  match  before  you  turn  on  the  gas,  so  as  not  to 
let  any  unburned  gas  escape  into  the  room.  Then  be 
sure  to  turn  off  the  pilot-light  when  the  other  lights 
are  lighted.  Every  year  there  are  about  one  hundred 
thousand  accidents  in  the  United  States  caused 
by  gas." 

"Well,"  said  Ruth,  "I  certainly  should  hate  to 
have  an  accident  to  this  dear,  new  play-house.  We'll 
be  very,  very  careful,  won't  we,  Paul?" 

"Sure  we  will,"  agreed  Paul.  "Oh,  Mother, 
there's  the  man  coming  to  fix  the  bathtub  pipes!" 

THINGS  TO  BEMEMBEB 

Because  our  health  depends  so  much  on  our  food,  and 
our  food  is  prepared  in  the  kitchen,  the  kitchen  is  one  of 
the  most  important  rooms  in  a  house.  It  must  be  con- 
venient and  it  must  be  clean. 

A  refrigerator  is  necessary  to  keep  food  from  spoiling. 
It  should  be  scrubbed  once  a  week  or  oftener  if  food 
is  spilled  in  it.  Use  hot  water  and  ammonia.  Wash  care- 
fully all  racks,  walls  and  every  little  corner.  Let  hot 


76  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

ammonia  water  run  down  the  waste  pipe.  Do  not  replace 
ice  or  food  till  all  is  dry  and  cool.  Keep  the  door  tightly 
shut.  Of  course  ice  will  always  be  washed  before  it  is 
put  in  the  clean  chest. 

Have  a  cleaning  closet  in  which  tools  and  materials  for 
cleaning  are  kept.  Here  belong  broom,  mops,  clean  dust- 
ing cloths,  clean  soft  rags,  washing  soda,  household  am- 
monia, washing  powders,  soaps  and  furniture  polishes. 
Use  these  things  to  keep  floors,  tables  and  sinks  clean. 

A  good  housekeeper  has  two  dishpans  for  washing 
dishes.  One  is  filled  with  hot  soapy  water,  the  other  with 
hot  clear  water.  After  dishes  are  scraped  free  from 
grease  and  food  they  are  washed  in  the  hot  soapy  water, 
rinsed  in  clean,  clear  hot  water  and  dried  with  the  soft 
clean  towel.  A  pot  chain  and  a  scouring  powder  should 
be  used  on  cooking  pots.  A  long  handled  brush,  kept  very 
clean,  should  be  used  for  bottles  and  pitchers.  Dishpans, 
cloths  and  brushes  must  be  thoroughly  washed  when 
the  dishes  are  done  and  put  away  clean  and  dry. 

Nowadays  most  cities  ask  their  citizens  to  keep  food 
scraps  and  rubbish,  as  paper,  boxes,  bottles,  separate,  to 
help  in  disposing  of  the  waste.  Every  kitchen  therefore 
should  have  both  a  garbage  and  a  rubbish  can.  The  gar- 
bage can  must  be  of  metal,  with  a  tight-fitting  lid.  It 
should  be  scrubbed  out  with  soapy  water  and  washing 
soda  daily  in  hot  weather.  Then  neither  flies  nor  germs 
of  decay  causing  bad  smells  will  ever  be  in  your 
garbage  can. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Compare  the  plan  of  your  kitchen  with  the  picture  in 
the  book.  Which  is  more  convenient  and  why  ?  Ask  your 
mother  what  she  thinks. 

How  should  dishes  be  washed  to  have  them  clean 
and  shining? 

What  materials  and  tools  would  you  need  for  keeping 


KITCHEN  COMFORT  77 

a  kitchen  spotless!  Do  people  always  have  these  con- 
venient things? 

Why  do  we  need  to  take  so  much  trouble  to  keep  a 
refrigerator  clean  !  How  can  we  do  so !  How  do  you  do 
so  at  your  home  !  Do  all  people  have  refrigerators  !  Are 
there  other  ways  of  keeping  food  cool!  Why  must  some 
foods  be  kept  cool !  What  foods ! 

How  often  does  the  city  empty  your  garbage  can! 
What  are  the  city  regulations  about  garbage  cans !  What 
becomes  of  the  garbage!  What  is  done  at  your  home 
to  keep  the  garbage  can  free  from  flies  and  smells!  Is 
the  way  the  book  tells  about  a  better  way! 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  BATHROOM 

WHILE  Ruth  and  her  mother  finished  putting 
away  the  dishes,  Paul  had  a  beautiful  time  watching 
the  plumber  connect  the  pipes  in  the  bathroom. 
"How  did  you  ever  learn  to  do  it  so  well?"  he  asked, 
as  he  watched  the  plumber's  strong  hands  at  work. 
The  man  looked  up  with  a  smile.  "My  father  taught 
me,"  he  said.  "It  took  me  several  years  to  learn  all 
about  pipes  and  drains  and  such  things ;  but  anyone 
can  ruin  a  pipe  in  about  five  minutes.  Funny,  isn't 
it,  that  it  takes  so  long  to  learn  to  make  anything,  but 
spoiling  things  just  seems  to  come  natural." 

"Mother  showed  us  why  we  mustn't  ever  throw 
things  down  the  plumbing,"  said  Paul,  "so  I  don't 
think  your  work  will  be  spoiled  in  this  house.  It's 
a  nice  bathroom,  isn't  it?" 

"It  certainly  is,"  nodded  the  man.  "Lots  nicer 
than  I  had  when  I  was  a  boy  your  age." 

"What  was  your  bathroom  like?"  inquired  Paul. 

The  plumber's  merry  blue  eyes  twinkled.  "Well, 
you  see,"  he  said,  "I  was  born  in  the  Old  Country — in 
Ireland.  There  were  nine  of  us  children,  and  we  had 
but  four  rooms  in  the  house,  so  the  bathroom  was  situ- 
ated in  the  dining-room  and  the  dining-room  was  situ- 
ated in  the  kitchen.  When  I  wanted  to  take  a  bath, 
I  put  a  big  pail  of  water  on  the  stove  early  in  the 
evening.  Then,  when  the  family  had  gone  to  bed, 

78 


THE  BATHROOM 


79 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


I  put  an  old  wooden  tub  in  the 
middle  of  the  floor,  poured  my 
hot  water  into  it  and  had  a  fine 
soapy  scrub.  Then  my  younger 
brother  would  take  the  water- 
ing-can full  of  cold  water  and 
pour  it  over  me.  IVe  never 
had  a  better  bath  in  all  my 
life  since." 

" Didn't  it  make  the  floor 
awfully  sloppy  ? ' '  asked  Paul. 

"Sure,  it  was  nothing  but 
a  dirt  floor,  so  the  water  did  no 
harm.  But  if  you  ever  try  it, 
I'd  advise  you  to  spread  out  a 
square  of  oilcloth — then  your 
mother  won't  be  after  scolding 
you  for  making  her  floor  wet. ' ' 

"Well,"  said  Mother,  who 
had  just  come  to  the  door,  "I'm 
afraid  the  children  will  have  to 
do  without  a  shower  bath.  I 
do  like  them  because  all  the 
dirty  water  runs  right  off  and 


THE  BATHROOM  81 

there  is  never  any  trouble  about  having  to  clean  the 
tub,  but  this  isn't  a  boarding  house  or  hotel  where  all 
sorts  of  people  are  using  the  tub,  so  it  will  be  kept 
clean  and  nice."  As  she  spoke,  Mother  had  been 
unwrapping  a  bundle,  from  which  she  took  a  large 
scrub-brush,  a  smaller  one,  a  cake  of  soap,  a  nail- 
cleaner  and  a  package  of  tooth  powder. 

"This  big  brush,"  she  explained,  "is  to  scrub  out 
the  tub  with.  It  needs  a  cleaning  every  morning  and, 
of  course,  everyone  who  takes  a  bath  will  always  scrub 
out  the  tub  with  soap  and  hot  water,  so  as  to  leave  it 
clean  and  nice.  This  small  brush,  Paul,  is  especially 
for  you,  so  that  you  can  scrub  away  all  the  dirt  from 
under  your  nails — and  if  there  is  any  left,  you  can 
get  it  out  with  this  nail-cleaner." 

Paul  was  looking  at  the  smooth  back  of  the  nail- 
scrub.  "What's  this  that  you've  printed  on  the  back 
of  the  nailbrush,  Mother?"  he  asked. 

Mother  laughed.  "I  thought,"  she  said,  "that 
it  might  help  you  to  remember  about  having 
clean  nails." 

This  was  what  Mother  had  printed  on  the  brush: 

DONT  EAT  GERMS ! 

To  keep  your  health  you  must  be  neat. 

Your  fate  lies  in  your  hands,  they  say; 
So  scrub  them  well  before  you  eat, 

To  wash  the  dirt  and  germs  away ! 

As  Paul  finished  reading  the  verse  aloud,  Ruth 
came  in  with  her  school  books  on  her  arm.  "Oh, 
Mother,"  she  exclaimed,  "we  had  such  an  interesting 


6 


82  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

time  at  school!  I  told  Miss  Baker  about  the  bath- 
room we  are  having  made  and  she  told  us  a  lot 
about  bathrooms.'7 

"What  did  she  say?"  asked  Paul. 
"Why  first  she  showed  us  the  sort  of  things  that 
they   used   in   the   baths   in   Rome;    she   had   bor- 
rowed   them    from    Professor    Fielding. 
There  was  a  funny  sort  of  scraper  called  a 
'strigiP  that  they  used  to  scrape  off  the 
dead  skin.    I  suppose  it  worked  something 
like  our  brush.     Then  there  was  a  little 
metal  bottle  that  held  oil.     The  Romans 
used  to  oil  themselves,  because  Miss  Baker 
says  soap  takes  some  of  the  oil  out  of  your 
skin  and  leaves  it  dry.    And  there  was  a 
sort  of  shallow  cup  that  they  drank  out  of — because 
the  hot  bath  made  them  thirsty. " 

"Yes/7  said  Mother,  "the  inside  of  you  needs  a 
bath  just  as  much  as  the  outside,  or  more  so.  Always 
drink  plenty  of  water." 

"And  then,"  continued  Ruth,  "of  course  she  told 
us,  just  as  you  have,  that  we  ought  to  have  a  warm, 
soapy  bath  several  times  a  week  and  a  cool  splash 
every  morning.  And  then  she  showed  us  a  picture  of 
such  a  funny  bathtub.  Benjamin  Franklin  made  it 
just  for  himself.  It  was  shaped  like  a  shoe.  Franklin 
used  to  fill  it  with  warm  water,  so  when  he  got  in, 
the  water  came  way  up  to  his  neck.  He  had  a 
book  propped  up  on  the  instep  of  the  shoe  and  he 
used  to  sit  there  and  read.  Mustn't  he  have 
looked  funnv?" 


THE  BATHROOM 


83 


Mother  laughed.  " Indeed,  he  must!  But  you 
children  had  better  not  follow  his  example  and  sit 
in  the  tub  for  hours  together.  When  people  are  ill, 
or  very  tired,  sometimes  it  is  good  for  them  to  take  a 


long  soak  in  warm  water.  It  seems  to  make  them 
sleepy  and  comfortable,  but  for  healthy  youngsters 
like  you,  a  brisk  scrub  and  a  good  cold  splash  are 
far  better." 

" Where  are  we  going  to  hang  our  towels?"  asked 
Paul,  who  had  been  watching  the  plumber  pack  up 
his  tools. 

"You  can  hang  your  towel  and  wash-cloth  here 
over  the  tub — yours  at  one  end  and  Kuth's  at  the 
other,  so  that  if  one  of  you  has  any  skin  trouble  or  any 
sort  of  illness,  the  other  will  not  run  any  risk  of 
getting  the  germs.  And  you  can  hang  your  tooth- 
brushes on  these  two  hooks  under  the  medicine  closet. 
If  you  are  out  here,  you  won't  have  me  close  by  to 


84  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

remind  you,  so  you  will  have  to  try  extra  hard  to 
remember  to  brush  your  teeth  the  first  thing  in  the 
morning  and  last  thing  at  night." 

"But  you'll  usually  be  with  us  at  meals,  so  you 
can  remind  us  about  brushing  them  after  meals/' 
said  Ruth. 

"But  I  shan't  be  with  you  at  meals  all  your  lives, 
Ruth,"  said  Mother,  "so  you  had  better  form  the 
habit  right  now  of  remembering  for  yourselves.  I'll 
lay  the  package  of  tooth  powder  here  and  when  I  go 
over  to  the  big  house  I  think  I  can  find  two  bottles. 
We'll  divide  the  powder  and  you  can  each  have 
a  bottle." 

"What's  the  powder  made  of?"  asked  Paul. 

"I  had  the  druggist  make  it  for  me,"  replied 
Mother.  "I  asked  him  to  mix  two  ounces  of  pre- 
cipitated chalk  with  one-half  ounce  of  powdered  cas- 
tile  soap  and  one  dram  of  powdered  orris  root,  so  I 
got  all  this  powder  for  only  fifteen  cents,  and  it  is 
just  as  good  for  your  teeth  as  the  most  expensive 
tooth  paste  in  a  fancy  tube." 

As  the  plumber  went  out  the  door,  in  walked 
Father.  ' '  My,  what  a  clean,  white  tub ! "  he  exclaimed. 
"I  hope  you'll  play  fair  with  that  tub." 

"What  do  you  meanl"  asked  Paul. 

"Well,"  said  Father,  "I  have  known  boys — of 
course,  I  never  lived  with  one,  but  I  have  known  them 
— who  left  the  tub  for  someone  else  to  clean.  I  used 
to  forget  and  do  it  myself  when  I  was  a  boy.  And 
one  night  I  had  such  a  queer  dream.  I  made  up  a 
verse  about  it." 


THE  BATHROOM 


85 


"Say  the  verse  to  us,"  begged  Ruth. 

So  Father,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  recited : 

' '  Ai?ter  my  bath,  I  dreamed  last  night 
Something  that  gave  me  such  a  fright. 
I  thought  that  through  the  bathroom  door 
I  heard  the  unwashed  bathtub  roar, 
'  Hi  you !  Come  here !    What  do  you  mean? 
I  helped  you  wash  all  nice  and  clean, 
And  now  you  coolly  turn  your  back 
And  leave  me  here  all  streaked  and  black. 
Whoever  wants  to  use  me  next 
Will,  I  am  sure,  be  sorely  vexed 
At  seeing  this  dark,  dirty  rim 
That  you  have  left  behind  for  him. 
Fair  play,  my  son !   Come,  give  a  rub 
To  your  old  friend,  the  faithful' Tub !'  " 


86  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

THINGS  TO  KEMEMBEB 

The  bathroom  is  another  one  of  the  most  important 
rooms  in  the  house.  To  use  it  well  is  one  great  step  in 
health-getting.  We  can  begin  by  taking  proper  care  of 
the  bathtub.  After  every  bath  we  scrub  the  tub  with  a 
large  brush  which  we  keep  for  this  purpose.  This  leaves 
the  tub  clean  for  the  next  bath.  We  also  scrub  the  wash 
basin  after  every  using. 

Each  person  in  the  house  has  his  own  wash  cloth  and 
towels  and  keeps  them  on  his  own  hook.  Of  course  each 
person  has  a  separate  hook  for  his  own  toothbrush,  which 
he  uses  night  and  morning  and  hangs  up,  well  rinsed,  after 
each  using. 

In  the  bathroom  there  will  be  plenty  of  good  soap 
and  tooth  paste.  Salt  is  a  very  good  substitute  for  tooth 
paste.  There  will  be  a  nailbrush  and  a  nailfile,  so  that  dirt 
which  gets  ground  in  under  the  finger-nails  can  be  re- 
moved. People  can  do  the  dirtiest  work  and  still  have 
clean  hands  afterwards  if  they  use  both  of  these  bath- 
room tools  properly. 

We  will  use  the  bathtub  for  warm,  soapy  all-over  baths 
at  least  twice  a  week  to  get  our  bodies  clean  and  to  re- 
move all  odors.  Besides  the  scrub-bath  for  cleanliness,  a 
cold  splash  every  morning  is  a  good  habit.  It  makes  blood 
circulate  through  the  body  and  helps  train  the  skin  to  get 
used  to  cold.  Never  forget  that  clean  bodies  deserve  clean 
underclothes.  Civilized  persons  use  bathrooms  and 
laundries  freely.  Savage  people  do  not.  Which  will 
you  be  I 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

What  is  everyone's  duty  to  the  bathtub  and  wash- 
basin? 

How  can  we  get  our  nails  clean  after  working  in  gar- 
den or  helping  clean  the  automobile? 


THE  BATHROOM  87 

What  care  should  oner  take-  of  toothbrush,  towel  and 
wash  cloth? 

Where  do  you  suppose  the  bad  odors  in  some  school- 
rooms or  crowded  cars  come  from?  How  could  they 
be  avoided? 

For  what  different  reasons  do  we  take  hot  and  cold 
baths?  Do  you  remember  how  to  avoid  "taking  cold" 
after  a  hot  bath? 

How  can  people  who  do  not  have  bathrooms  keep 
themselves  and  their  clothes  clean? 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET 

"WELL,"  said  Ruth,  as  they  gathered  around  the 
supper  table  that  evening,  "the  bathroom  is  all  fin- 
ished. Even  the  towels  and  soap  are  there.  I  can 
scarcely  wait  to  take  a  bath  in  the  new  tub." 

"It  isn't  quite  finished,  Ruth,"  replied  her 
Mother.  i '  To-morrow  I  want  to  go  down  to  Bradley 's 
to  get  several  things,  and  while  I  arn  there  I  am  going 
to  buy  some  supplies  for  your  medicine  closet." 


"But  we  are  scarcely  ever  sick,"  objected  Paul, 
"and  when  we  are,  you  hardly  ever  give  us 
any  medicine." 

88 


THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET  89 

"I  don't  mean,  dear,  that  I  am  going  to  buy  a  lot 
of  medicine  to  dose  you  with.  But  sometimes  acci- 
dents happen,  and  I  want  you  the  have  a  few  simple 
remedies  in  the  bathroom  cabinet  which  you  will  know 
how  to  use  in  case  of  an  accident.7' 

"What  sort  of  accidents  are  we  likely  to  have, 
do  you  think?"  asked  Ruth. 

"Well,"  said  Father,  "I  think  you  will  be  a  good 
deal  luckier  than  most  young  cooks  if  you  don't 
sooner  or  later  burn  your  hands." 

"And  what  ought  we  to  get  to  put  on  a  burn?" 
inquired  Paul. 

"If  it  is  just  a  little  burn  that  makes  a  red  mark," 
said  Mother,  "a  spoonful  of  baking  soda  with  a  few 
drops  of  water  will  make  a  paste  that  will  take  the 
pain  away  very  soon.  Such  a  soda  paste  is  very  good 
for  mosquito  bites,  too,  and  any  sort  of  sting." 

"Last  summer,"  put  in  Paul,  "Jim  Nixon  and 
Kid  Frost  found  an  empty  hornets'  nest  and  they 
started  to  poke  it  down,  but  it  wasn't  empty  at  all 
and  the  hornets  came  out  as  mad  as  anything  and 
stung  Jim  and  Kid  awfully.  They  came  running- 
down  the  road  screaming  'bloody  murder,'  and  old 
Mr.  McGinnis  met  them  and  he  took  a  big  lump  of 
mud  and  plastered  it  on  their  faces.  Jim  said  it 
helped  a  lot." 

"Yes,"  said  Father,  "mud  or  any  sort  of  paste 
that  keeps  the  air  out  will  help  a  burn  or  sting.  But 
for  a  really  bad  burn,  or  one  where  the  skin  is  off,  I 
think  you  had  better  have  some  sweet  oil.  Such 
burns  need  something  oily  or  greasy  to  soothe  them. 


90  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

And  over  the  oil  you  will  need  a  bandage  of  ster- 
ilized gauze. " 

"What's  that?"  asked  Paul. 

"  It  is  fine  cheese-cloth  that  has  been  treated  so  that 
all  germs  on  it  have  been  killed.  You  know  that  if 
germs  get  into  a  wound  it  is  likely  to  fester  and  be 
very  sore  or  even  make  a  wounded  person  dangerously 
ill.  During  the  war,  you  know  that  Mother  and  you 
children,  too,  helped  to  make  a  great  many  bandages. 
These  bandages  were  afterward  sterilized — dipped  in 
a  sort  of  liquid  that  killed  all  the  germs.  Then  when 
a  bandage  was  put  on  some  poor,  wounded  soldier, 
there  was  no  danger  of  his  wound  getting  any  germs 
from  the  bandage.  We'll  buy  some  bandage-gauze 
like  this  for  your  medicine  closet  and  then,  if  you 
cut  your  finger,  it  will  be  useful. ' ' 

"But,"  said  Mother,  "before  putting  on  the  band- 
age, you  must  be  sure  that  there  is  no  dirt  in  the  cut. 
That  is  why,  if  it  is  at  all  dirty,  I  want  you  to  hold  a 
cut  under  the  faucet  and  then  put  on  some  listerine 
or  alcohol  and  water,  before  putting  on  the  bandage." 

"I'm  going  to  get  a  pencil,"  declared  Ruth,  "and 
make  a  list  of  what  we  must  put  into  the  medicine 
closet.  Let's  see,  for  slight  burns  and  stings,  we  want 
some  baking  soda.  For  burns  where  the  skin  is  off 
we  want  some  sweet  oil.  For  cuts,  we  need  some 
listerine,  or  alcohol  to  clean  them  and  some  sterile 
bandaging  to  tie  them  up." 

"I  didn't  know  that  alcohol  was  any  good,"  said 
Paul.  "I  thought  it  was  just  used  to  make  wine 
and  whiskey." 


THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET  91 

" Alcohol  is  like  most  things  in  the  world,  Paul/' 
said  his  Father.  "It  is  useful  or  harmful,  according 
to  how  it  is  used.  It  is  very  harmful  to  drink  it,  for 
it  weakens  the  heart,  makes  your  eyes  and  ears  less 
keen,  overworks  your  liver  and  kidneys,  makes  your 
nerves /shaky'  and  if  you  get  into  the  habit  of  taking 
it,  makes  you  such  a  slave  that  you  feel  you  can't  get 
on  without  it.  It  isn't  a  food,  at  all,  but  a  dangerous 
drug,  as  people  are  beginning  to  realize,  and  never 
ought  to  go  into  anyone's  stomach  unless  the  doctor 
orders  it  as  a  medicine,  like  any  other  drug.  But  for 
use  on  the  outside  of  your  body,  it  is  very  good.  As 
Mother  has  said,  it  kills  germs.  I  wonder  whether 
you  children  know  the  right  and  wrong  way  to  take 
out  splinters." 

"I  always  just  take  a  pin  and  dig,"  said  Paul. 
"Of  course,  it  hurts,  but  I  don't  care." 

"I'm  glad  you  are  brave,  son,"  replied  Mother, 
"but  I  want  you  also  to  be  sensible.  There  is  an  old 
proverb,  *  Discretion  is  the  better  part  of  valor,'  which 
means  that  bravery  isn't  of  much  use  without  good 
sense.  Now  it  isn't  sensible  to  'just  dig'  into  your 
finger  with  a  dirty  pin  or  needle.  Pins  and  needles 
are  apt  to  have  germs  on  them.  Then,  too,  your  finger 
itself  is  sometimes  dirty.  Can't  you  see  that  if  you 
dig  into  a  dirty  finger  with  a  dirty  pin,  you  are  just 
planting  germs  in  your  wound?" 

"Never  thought  of  it  before,"  admitted  Paul. 
"Well,  what  is  the  right  way?" 

"The  right  way  is  to  wash  the  finger  thoroughly 
in  a  little  alcohol,  so  there  are  no  germs  on  it.  Then 


92  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

dip  a  needle  into  the  alcohol.  Then  'dig'  for 
the  splinter.  Alcohol  is  good,  too,  for  rubbing  on 
bruises  and  sprains.  Almost  all  the  liniments  for 
rheumatism  and  lameness  are  mostly  alcohol.  If  you 
get  a  bad  bruise,  put  as  hot  water  on  it  as  you  can 
stand,  and  then  put  on  some  cold  water  with  alcohol 
in  it.  Yes,  indeed,  we  must  have  some  alcohol  in  our 
closet,  but  to  use  outside,  not  inside.'' 

" Suppose,"  said  Paul,  "I  got  a  really  bad  cut, 
like  Luke  Evans  last  summer.  He  was  playing  in  the 
barn  and  he  fell  right  on  a  scythe  and  cut  his  leg 
dreadfully.  It  bled  lots,  kept  coming  in  sort 
of  spurts." 

' '  He  must  have  cut  an  artery, ' '  said  Father.  ' '  You 
know,  the  arteries  are  the  pipes  that  carry  the  blood 
from  the  heart  to  all  parts  of  the  body  and  the  veins 
carry  the  blood  to  the  heart.  When  a  vein  is  cut,  it 
does  not  bleed  so  fast,  isn't  quite  such  a  bright  red 
and  doesn't  come  in  ' spurts,'  as  Paul  says.  If  any- 
one is  badly  cut,  you  should  call  help  and  get  a  doctor 
at  once,  for  if  a  person  loses  too  much  blood,  he  will 
be  very  ill  or  may  even  die." 

"But  suppose  you  can't  find  a  doctor  right  away," 
said  Ruth. 

"In  that  case,"  said  Father,  "you  must  stop  the 
bleeding  until  the  doctor  comes.  If  the  blood  is  com- 
ing in  spurts,  you  may  know  that  the  blood  is  coming 
from  the  heart,  so  you  must  press  on  the  artery 
between  the  cut  and  the  heart,  so  as  to  stop  the  blood. 
The  easiest  way  to  do  this  is  to  tie  a  handkerchief 
tightly  around  the  arm  or  leg  above  the  cut.  Then 


THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET 


94 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


slip  a  stick  under  the  handkerchief  and  twist  it  round 
so  as  to  draw  the  handkerchief  as  tight  as  possible 
This  will  prevent  the  bleeding,  but  you  should  get 
some  grown  person  to  come  as  quickly  as  you  pos- 
sibly can." 


"  What  do  you  do  for  a  bad  burn?"  asked  Ruth. 

" There  isn't  much  that  I  could  tell  you  to  do, 
except  to  put  on  some  sweet  oil,  or  even  lard,  and  run 
for  a  doctor, ' '  replied  Mother.  i  i  The  most  important 
thing  for  children  to  know  is  how  to  avoid  danger 
from  fire  by  being  careful  with  matches,  stoves  and 
lamps,  and  what  to  do  if  they  or  anyone  else 
catch  fire." 

"What  ought  you  to  do?"  queried  Paul. 

"The  quickest  way  to  put  out  a  fire  is  to  smother 
it.  Don't  start  to  run.  Don't  rush  to  a  window, 
or  outdoors.  The  air  simply  fans  the  flame,  just 
as  we  kindle  the  fire  in  the  fireplace  by  blowing  on 
it  with  the  bellows.  Throw  yourself  flat  on  the 
floor.  Flames,  you  know,  always  go  upward,  so  if 


THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET  95 

you  lie  down  they  will  not  go  toward  your  face.  Then 
roll  yourself  in  a  rug,  table  cover,  or  any  woolen  thing 
that  you  can  catch  up  most  quickly.  Don't  use  cot- 


ton— it  burns  too  easily.  I  shall  never  forget  one 
time  when  I  was  about  Ruth's  age;  I  went  to  visit  a 
friend.  Her  baby  brother  was  playing  about  the 
floor.  My  friend  Elsie  and  I  had  been  playing  men- 
agerie and  had  taken  the  fire  screen  to  make  believe 
it  was  a  cage.  We  forgot  to  put  it  back  and  suddenly 
we  were  horrified  to  see  the  baby  lurch  toward  the 
open  fire  and  fall.  His  thin  muslin  dress  was  in 
flames  in  a  moment.  I  just  stood  arid  screamed  with 
fright.  Luckily,  Elsie  was  wiser  and  braver  than  I. 
She  seized  the  woolen  rug,  threw  it  around  the  baby 
on  the  floor  and  rolled  it  so  tightly  about  him  that  the 
flames  were  smothered." 

" Was  the  baby  much  burned?"  asked  Ruth,  with 
anxious  eyes. 

"Not  very  badly.    His  legs  were  a  little  hurt,  and 


96  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

so  were  Elsie's  hands,  but  the  doctor  said  that,  by 
acting  as  quickly  as  she  did,  she  had  saved  the  dear 
baby's  life.  Just  think  how  terrible  she  and  I  would 
both  have  felt  if  our  carelessness  about  the  fire-screen 
had  killed  him." 

Ruth  looked  very  serious  for  a  moment,  then  she 
picked  up  her  pencil.  "  I've  put  down  baking  soda, 
sweet  oil,  bandages,  medicated  alcohol. ' ' 

" Suppose  one  of  us  got  poisoned,"  suggested 
Paul,  who  was  fond  of  thinking  up  horrors. 

"I'm  not  going  to  suppose  anything  so  dreadful," 
laughed  Mother.  "You  know,  I  never  keep  any  sort 
of  poison  around.  I  always  tie  a  red  ribbon  on  the 
neck  of  every  poison  bottle,  including  the  alcohol 
bottle,  and  I  keep  such  bottles  way  off  on  a  top  shelf 
by  themselves.  Anyone  who  is  silly  enough  to  keep 
bottles  of  poison  in  with  other  medicine  almost  de- 
serves to  be  poisoned  for  his  foolishness." 

"Well,  but  Mother,"  insisted  Ruth,  "suppose  we 
were  visiting  somewhere,  just  as  you  visited  Elsie, 
and  the  people  were  careless  with  their  poison  and  I 
swallowed  some — what  ought  I  to  do  ?" 

"Different  poisons  need  different  treatment, 
Ruth,"  said  her  mother,  "but  there  is  one  thing  that 
is  always  safe  to  do,  and  that  is  to  swallow  all  the 
warm  water  you  can.  The  water  weakens  the  poison. 
After  you  have  drunk  about  a  cupful,  into  the  sec- 
ond cup  put  a  tablespoonful  of  dry  mustard  or  two 
tablespoonsful  of  salt — that  will  make  you  throw  the 
poison  up.  But,  of  course,  you  should  get  a  doctor 


THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET  97 

at  once  and  only  give  the  mustard-water  so  as  to  help 
the  sick  person  until  the  doctor  arrives." 

"I  think  something  more  important  for  most 
children,"  said  Father,  "is  to  know  what  to  do  for 
poison  ivy.  I  suffered  agonies  with  ivy  poisoning 
when  I  was  a  boy  until  some- 
one told  me,  whenever  I  had 
been  near  the  ivy,  to  scrub 
my  face  and  hands  well  with 
hot  water  and  soap,  as  soon 
as  possible.  It  seems  to  pre- 
vent the  poison  from  work- 
ing into  the  skin  and  system. 
After  you  are  actually  poi- 
soned, nothing  seems  to  help  much ;  but  washing  in  hot 
water,  then  putting  on  carbolized  vaseline  is  about 
as  good  as  anything." 

"I  was  always  running  into  poison  ivy,"  said 
Mother.  "  until  an  old  Quaker  lady  said  to  me, 

"  '  Green  leaves  three 
Say  to  thee 
6 Don't  touch  me!'  " 

and  since  then  I've  always  remembered  to  avoid  the 
three  leaves.  Ruth,  if  your  list  is  finished,  I'll  take 
it  down  to  the  druggist  to-morrow  and  our  medicine 
chest  will  be  complete." 

As  Father  kissed  the  children  good-night,  he  said, 
"  There  is  just  one  thing  that  I  want  you  youngsters 
to  remember  about  accidents.  That  is,  that  an  acci- 
dent is  the  surest  test  of  courage  and  sense.  When 

7 


98  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

an  accident  happens,  the  silly  pepple  scream  and  run 
about  and  don't  know  what  to  do.  They  simply  make 
things  worse.  The  brave  and  wise  people  think  what 
to  do  and  do  it  quietly  and  quickly.  They  are  the 
heroes  by  whom  the  weak  and  foolish  people  are 
saved.  You  know  how  to  use  all  the  things  that 
Mother  is  getting  for  the  medicine  closet.  I  hope  we 
shan't  have  many  accidents,  but  if  we  do,  I  trust  you 
to  remember  and  to  use  what  you  know." 

THINGS  TO  KEMEMBER 

The  medicine  chest  should  be  kept  in  the  bathroom 
within  easy  reach.  No  old  bottles  with  scraps  of  medicines 
should  be  allowed  in  it.  No  unlabeled  bottles  or  boxes 
should  be  there.  Like  everything  else  in  the  bathroom,  it 
must  be  very  clean.  It  should  contain  simple  things  to 
use  for  every-day  accidents  and  simple  remedies  for  slight 
illness.  Let  us  not  consider  illness  here,  but  only  a  few 
things  to  use  for  accidents  that  might  happen  in  any 
home.  We  want  in  the  medicine  chest : 

1.  Some  medicated  alcohol.   Wood  alcohol  is  poison. 
All  alcohol  is  for  outside  use  only.  Use  it  to  pour  over  a 
cut  to  disinfect  it.  Pour  it  over  a  splinter  before  removing 
it.  Put  the  needle  you  use  into  the  alcohol  for  a  minute  be- 
fore you  use  it,  also  for  disinfection, 

2.  Some  aseptic  absorbent  cotton.    The  cotton  is  used 
in  applying  any  liquid  to  the  skin.    It  must  be  kept  in 
its  box  and  only  as  much  removed  at  a  time  as  will  be  used. 

3.  Some  sterile  gauze  bandages.     Gauze  is  cheese- 
cloth, and  it  is  sterile  because  all  the  germs  on  it  have 
been  killed.    Therefore  when  you  handle  it  be  careful  to 
keep  it  as  clean  as  it  already  is.     Never  take  off  more 
than  you  need.    Keep  it  in  a  closed,  clean  box.    Never 
put  cotton  on  an  open  wound — always  use  gauze  for  cuts 


THE  MEDICINE  CLOSET  99 

or  burns.  Learn  to  recognize  a  cut  artery  by  the  spurting 
of  the  blood.  A  cut  veinbleeds  slowly,  and  is  not  so  danger- 
ous. When  the  blood  comes  in  spurts  press  on  the  artery 
between  cut  and  heart.  Tie  a  handkerchief  or  bandage 
above  the  cut.  Slip  a  pencil  or  stick  under  the  bandage 
and  twist  till  bandage  is  pressing  hard  enough  to  stop 
blood.  But  send  for  the  doctor  at  once. 

4.  We  need  some  sweet  oil  for  burns.    Any  good  clean 
oil  that  will  keep  air  away  is  used  to  put  on  burns  where 
the  skin  is  off.  The  oil  is  covered  with  sterile  gauze  and 
the  wound  kept  clean.    If  it  does  not  heal  nicely  at  once  a 
doctor  should  look  at  it  to  be  sure  it  is  free  from  germs. 

5.  Baking  soda.  Use  this  made  into  a  paste  with  water 
on  little  burns  that  redden  skin  but  do  not  break  it.    Use 
the  same  treatment  for  insect  bites  or  stings.    Any  paste, 
like  clean  mud,  which  keeps  air  out,  will  lessen  the  pain. 

6.  Have  a  small  pair  of  scissors  and  safety  pins  to  help 
in  putting  on  bandages. 

7.  Carbolized    vaseline.      Poison    ivy    often    causes 
trouble  in  the  spring  and  summer.    As  soon  as  you  come 
in  if  you  have  been  exposed  to  ivy  wash  in  hot  water  and 
strong  kitchen  soap.     Then  put  carbolized  vaseline  on 
the  places  that  are  red  and  irritated.    It  is  much  better  to 
learn  to  recognize  poison  ivy  and  avoid  it.    Carbolized 
vaseline  may  also  be  used  for  burns. 

8.  Some    salt   and   some   mustard  in   tight,   labeled 
bottles. 

9.  Some  people  like  to  keep  a  Red  Cross  book  of  First 
Aid  in  the  medicine  chest. 

10.  A  teaspoon  and  a  clean  glass. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Fpr  what  purposes  is  alcohol  useful  instead  of  poison- 
ous? What  kind  of  alcohol?  What  are  the  best  substi- 
tutes for  alcohol  for  these  uses  ? 

What  kinds  of  bandages  must  be  used  on  cuts  or 


100  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

burns?  What  is  the  first  rule  in  fixing  up  a,  cut  or  burn? 
How  must  we  care  for  the  bandages  and  cotton  in  the 
medicine  cabinet  and  why? 

How  would  you  stop  bleeding  from  an  artery  till  the 
doctor  came? 

What  must  you  have  in  the  medicine  cabinet  for 
slight  burns? 

What  must  you  have  in  the  medicine  cabinet  for 
burns  that  take  the  skin  off? 

What  should  you  do  to  put  out  a  fire  on  some- 
one's clothing? 

What  would  you  do  if  someone  accidentally  swallowed 
something  you  knew  was  poisonous  ?  How  can  we  prevent 
such  accidents? 

How  are  you  going  to  avoid  ivy  poisoning  on  your 
trips  to  the  woods?  If  you  are  unlucky  enough  to  get  it, 
what  should  you  do? 

If  someone  came  to  you  to  have  a  splinter  removed, 
how  would  you  do  it  ? 

If  someone  came  to  you  with  a  cut  finger,  how  would 
you  treat  it? 

Can  children  take  care  of  larger  accidents  than  this  ? 
What  do  we  do  for  serious  accidents  at  once? 

Why  is  our  conduct  of  the  very  greatest  importance  in 
an  accident? 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  BEDROOM 

"THERE,"  exclaimed  Ruth,  as  she  laid  down  her 
needle  and  thimble,  "my  sash-curtains  are  all  ready 
to  put  up.  Do  come  show  me  how  to  fix  them,  Mother. ' ' 

Mother  rose  willingly  and  the  two  ran  a  race  to 
the  play-house  door,  for  Mrs.  Weston  was  as  quick 
as  any  girl,  and  her  children  thought  her  much  more 
fun  than  most  of  their  playmates.  Laughing  and 
breathless,  they  reached  the  room  that  had  been  set 
aside  for  Ruth's  bedroom.  " Isn't  it  the  dearest  bed- 
room in  Pleasantville!"  exclaimed  Ruth.  And  in- 
deed, it  was  a  pretty  nest  for  any  little  girl  to  sleep  in. 

It  was  not  a  fussy,  fancy  room.  Dorothy  Frost, 
who  had  come  in  that  morning  to  'see  the  play-house, 
told  her  mother  that  it  was  not  "stylish, ' '  at  all.  But 
it  was  as  bright  and  airy  and  sweet-smelling  as  white 
paint,  sunshine  and  air  laden  with  the  odor  of  cher- 
ries could  make  it. 

Perhaps  Ruth  was  so  proud  of  it  because 
she  had  worked  so  hard  over  it.  All  of  three  long 
afternoons  she  had  spent  in  painting  her  old  bedroom 
furniture  a  smooth,  creamy  white.  The  iron  bed,  the 
chest  of  drawers,  the  table,  the  rocker  and  the  low, 
straight  chair  had  each  had  two  good  coats  of  enamel 
paint.  Now  they  stood  in  speckless  beauty  adorning 
her  room.  Their  whiteness  and  the  deeper  cream 
paint  on  the  walls  made  a  pleasant  contrast  with  the 

101 


102 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


strips  of  blue  carpet  that  formed  rugs  beside  the  bed 
and  before  the  chest  of  drawers. 

The  sun  poured  through  the  two  open  windows 
and  outside  the  cherry-tree  shook  its  crimson  clus- 
ters in  the  breeze.  Mother  had  not  advised  having 
any  long,  heavy  curtains.  "Plenty  of  fresh  air, 
daughter/7  she  had  said,  "so  that  you  won't  so  much 
mind  not  having  a  sleeping  porch.  The  sash-curtains 
will  be  just  as  pretty  and  will  not  keep  out  the  breeze. ' ' 

The  bed  had  been  put  in  the  corner  between  the 
windows,  but  Ruth  declared  that  she  would  pull  it  out 
farther  every  night,  so  that  she  could  have  a  gentle 
breeze  blowing  across  her  face  all  night. 

The  chairs  had  been  furnished  with  blue  cushions, 
a  gift  from  Aunt  Louise.  On  the  table  and  chest  of 
drawers  were  two  blue  a,nd  white  Japanese  "run- 
ners," which  Ruth  had  bought  for  a  quarter.  She 
was  very  proud  of  her  purchase,  and  the  little  room, 


THE  BEDROOM  103 

though  very  simple,  was  a  very  "homey,"  dainty  one. 

"I'm  glad,  Ruth,"  said  Mother,  "that  you  love 
fresh  air  so  well.  With  that  good  furnace  in  the  cel- 
lar, I  am  sure  that  the  house  will  keep  warm  enough 
for  you  to  have  your  windows  wide  open  all  night. 
We  are  much  more  lucky  that  way  than  our  ancestors 
were.  I  remember  once  visiting  an  old,  old  house  in 
New  York.  It  was  built  during  the  time  when  the 
early  Dutch  settlers  lived  there  and  in  one  bedroom 
there  was  an  ' alcove'  bed." 

"What  kind  of  bed  was  that?" 

"It  was  a  bed  built  into  a  sort  of  little  alcove,  with 
doors  or  a  curtain  in  front,  so  that  not  a  breath  of  air 
should  chill  the  sleeper.  Such  beds  were  very  com- 
mon in  Holland,  Brittany,  and,  I  think,  were  some- 
times used  in  England,  too.  Doesn't  it  seem  dreadful 
to  think  of  anyone  shutting  himself  into  such  a  tiny 
closet  with  no  fresh  air  all  night  long?" 

"Goodness,  I  don't  see  how  they  slept  at  all,"  said 
Ruth.  "Now,  Mother,  I'm  going  to  bring  over  my 
bedclothes  from  the  big  house,  so  you  can  help  me  to 
make  the  bed." 

Ruth  was  rather  proud  of  her  skill  as  a  bed- 
maker.  The  lower  sheet  of  her  bed  was  always 
stretched  smoothly  over  the  mattress  and  tucked 
snugly  in.  The  upper  sheet  was  folded  carefully  over, 
to  protect  the  tops  of  the  blankets.  The  unwrinkled 
covers  were  tucked  in  well  at  the  bottom  and  sides, 
and  the  pillow,  which  she  kept  "for  looks"  but  never 
used,  stood  up  smooth  and  straight.  When  the  bed 
was  made,  it  looked  like  the  bed  of  the  middle-sized 


104 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


THE  BEDROOM  105 

bear  in  the  fairy-tale—inviting  enough  to  tempt  any- 
one to  lie  on  it. 

"  You  surely  do  know  how  to  make  a  bed,  Kuthie," 
said  Mother,  patting  her  on  the  shoulder.  "I  won- 
der if  you  also  know  how  to  keep  a  bed  sweet 
and  nice/' 


"Why,"  said  Euth,  "let's  see.  Every  week  I'll 
take  off  the  lower  sheet  and  put  it  in  the  wash,  use  the 
upper  sheet  for  a  lower  and  put  on  a  clean  upper  one. 
And,  of  course,  every  morning  111  air  the  bed  well 
by  pulling  off  the  clothes  and  hanging  them  over  a 
chair  in  the  window." 

"That's  right,"  replied  her  mother.  "I  some- 
times wonder  how  people  can  stand  sleeping  in  beds 
that  are  never  decently  aired  from  one  end  of  the 


106  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

year  to  the  other.  Lots  of  children,  and  grown  people, 
too,  just  crawl  out  of  bed  as  a  rabbit  does  out  of 
its  burrow,  leaving  the  bed-clothes  in  a  stuffy  mass. 
Then  the  person  who  makes  the  beds  simply  pulls 
the  covers  into  place.  That  is  one  reason  why  I  do 
not  favor  folding-beds — they  are  so  likely  not  to 
be  aired." 

"Last  summer,"  said  Ruth,  "Aunt  Louise  took 
me  to  call  on  an  old,  old  lady  out  in  the  country,  and 
she  showed  us  in  her  kitchen  a  bed  that  her  grand- 
mother had  once  used.  She  called  it  a  *  turn-up'  bed. 
It  was  just  a  wooden  frame  with  two  legs  at  one  end. 
The  other  end  was  fastened  to  the  wall  with  hinges 
and  at  night  it  was  let  down.  In  the  daytime  it  was 
fastened  up  against  the  wall  with  a  curtain  in  front 
of  it.  The  old  lady  said  her  grandmother  put  it  in 
the  kitchen  because  it  was  the  only  room  in  the  house 
that  was  warm  enough  to  be  comfortable  at  night. 
She  said  in  the  other  rooms  the  water  in  the  pitchers 
used  to  freeze  perfectly  solid  at  night." 

"It  isn't  much  wonder  that  our  grandmothers 
didn't  like  to  have  windows  open  at  night,"  said 
Mother,  "when  we  remember  how  terribly  cold  their 
houses  were.  Two  New  England  ministers,  in  their 
diaries,  say  that  the  ink  froze  on  their  pens  while  they 
wrote.  Did  Aunt  Louise  show  you  her  old  warming- 
pan?  It's  one  that  belonged  to  her  great-aunt  for 
whom  she  was  named.  It  is  about  a  foot  across 
and  four  or  five  inches  deep,  made  of  brass  with 
a  long  wooden  handle  and  a  fancy  brass  cover,  full 
of  little  holes.  It  was  filled  with  hot  coals  and  moved 


THE  BEDROOM  107 

quickly  around  inside  the  bed  to  warm  it  without 
burning  the  Sheets.  They  used  to  have  hand-woven 
linen  sheets  in  those  days,  you  know.  Linen  sheets 
are  very  cool  and  comfortable  in  summer,  but  very 


chilly  in  winter.  The  warming-pan  must  have  been 
a  real  comfort,  for  it  isn't  good  for  anyone  to  get  into 
a  damp,  freezing  cold  bed  in  a  bitter  cold  room." 

"Aunt  Louise,  on  very  cold  days  when  the  baby 
takes  his  nap  outdoors,  puts  a  hot  water  bag  into  his 
crib,"  said  Ruth. 

"A  hot  water  bag,  or  even  a  brick,  well  wrapped 
up  so  it  won't  burn  you,  is  a  very  pleasant  bed-fellow 
on  a  winter  night,"  agreed  Mother.  "When  I  was 
a  little  girl  I  used  to  take  my  pet  kitten  to  bed.  She 
cuddled  down  at  my  feet,  and  I  buried  my  toes  in  her 
warm  fur,  but  one  night  my  mother  found  Fluffy 
in  the  bed  and  insisted  that  she  must  sleep  in  her  bas- 
ket and  that  I  must  find  some  other  kind  of  foot- 
warmer.  I  cried,  but  now  I  know  that  she  was  right. 
We  want  our  beds  to  be  perfectly  clean  and  sweet- 
smelling,  and  they  can't  be  so  if  we  let  our  pet  animals 
sleep  in  them  or  if  we  don't  air  and  clean  them  thor- 
oughly. By  the  way,  Ruth,  when  did  you  brush  your 
mattress  last?" 


108 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

Ruth  blushed  a  little  as 


"I  really  don't  know, 
she  said  it. 

"Well,  it's  a  shame  to  tear  up  this  freshly-made 
bed  now,  but  to-morrow  I  will  help  you  to  take  the 
mattress  to  the  window  and  you  can  brush  it  very 


thoroughly.  Pull  up  each  of  the  little  tufts  and  brush 
out  the  dust  from  under  it,  and  don't  forget  to  go 
along  all  the  seams.  A  mattress  ought  to  be  thor- 
oughly brushed  like  this  at  least  once  a  week. ' ' 

"I  don't  see  how  a  bed  can  get  so  very  dirty," 
said  Ruth. 

"It's  surprising  how  much  dust  can  get  into  a 
bed,"  replied  Mother.  "Then,  too,  Ruth,  sometimes 


THE  BEDROOM  109 

if  you  sit  next  to  a  dirty  person  in  the  cars,  you  may 
get  a  bug  on  you,  and  you  should  keep  a  very  careful 
watch  that  no  bug  ever  gets  into  your  bed  or  is  al- 
lowed to  stay  there." 

"  Suppose  bugs  should  get  into  our  bed,  what  could 
we  do?"  asked  Ruth  anxiously. 

"We  should  have  to  take  the  bed  out  under  the 
cherry-tree  and  go  over  it  very  thoroughly  with  a 
brush  dipped  into  gasoline  or  kerosene.  Of  course, 
we  could  do  this  in  the  house,  but  you  know  it  is  never 
safe  to  use  gasoline  or  kerosene  where  there  is  fire 
or  gas  burning.  Besides,  one  has  to  go  very  carefully 
into  all  the  cracks  and  the  oil  is  likely  to  drip,  so  if 
it  can  be  done  outdoors,  it's  better." 

Just  then  in  walked  Father.  "My,  what  a  bower 
for  our  princess ! "  he  exclaimed.  * '  Lucky  that  you  're 
not  a  princess,  though,  Euth.  You  know  that  the 
fairy-tale  princess  lay  awake  because  there  was  a 
pea  under  her  twenty  feather  beds  and  you  have  only 
a  good  hair  mattress." 

"I  like  it  ever  so  much  better,"  declared  Ruth. 

"Do  you,  indeed  I"  laughed  Father.  "Well,  I 
agree  with  you.  Hair  is  cleaner,  more  healthful  and 
in  every  way  nicer  than  feathers.  Oh,  by  the  way,  I 
wonder  if  you  can  guess  an  old  riddle  that  someone 
told  me  to-day.  Here  it  is : 

' 'Formed  long  ago,  yet  made  to-day, 

I'm  most  in  use  while  others  sleep; 
What  few  would  wish  to  give  away, 
But  fewer  still  would  wish  to  keep." 


110  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Draw  a  plan  of  a  bedroom  that  will  be  everything 
you  think  a  bedroom  should  be.  Show  where  windows  and 
doors  belong.  Then  show  where  each  piece  of  furniture 
should  be.  Now  plan  the.  decorations  for  it,  so  that  it 
will  be  beautiful  as  well  as  sanitary.  If  you  can,  visit  a 
furniture  store  and  look  at  beautiful,  sanitary  and  simple 
bedroom  furniture.  If  you  are  skillful  with  your  hands 
you  will  find  it  interesting  to  make  a  model  of  this  sani- 
tary bedroom. 

If  there  is  a  museum  in  your  town  where  there  is  old 
furniture  visit  it  and  compare  the  old  furniture  with 
modern  kinds. 

Find  out  what  kinds  of  beds,  tables,  chairs  were  used 
by  the  first  settlers  in  our  country.  How  do  they  compare 
with  our  things  ? 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

We  spend  nearly  a  third  of  our  lives  in  our  bedrooms. 
We  should  study  how  to  make  them  both  attractive  and 
sanitary.  Modern  houses  are  so  built  and  heated  that  no 
one  has  to  shut  out  all  the  air  in  order  to  be  warm,  as 
people  did  long  ago.  We  have  learned  that  fresh  air 
moving  over  our  faces  is  good  for  us  and  not  dangerous. 
We  know  that  cleanliness  and  sunshine  are  first  aids  to 
health,  and  they  must  be  first  aims  in  making  a 
good  bedroom. 

A  good  bedroom  is  light.  It  has  as  many  windows  as 
possible.  These  are  placed  on  different  sides  of  the  room, 
when  possible,  to  give  the  best  ventilation.  If  this  cannot 
be,  they  are  opened  from  top  and  bottom,  not  from  top  or 
bottom  only.  The  bedroom  has  as  few  draperies  as  pos- 
sible. The  curtains  are  light  in  weight,  easily  washed  and 
easily  pushed  back  from  the  windows. 

The  floor  is  kept  as  clean  as  possible.  The  covering  of 
the  floor  should  be  easily  cleaned  if  the  floor  is  not  of  bare 


THE  BEDROOM  111 

wood.  The  furniture  should  be  plain  so  it  too  can  be 
easily  and  quickly  cleaned. 

The  bed  is  the  most  important  thing  in  the  room.  A  good 
bed  has  a  hair  mattress  rather  than  feather  beds.  A  good 
little  housekeeper  will  brush  the  mattress  once  a  week, 
going  over  every  little  seam  and  tuft.  Dust  gets  into  beds, 
and  sometimes  through  accident  or  carelessness  even  a 
bug  may  get  in.  If  this  should  happen  the  best  way  to 
destroy  the  bugs  is  by  applying  kerosene  or  gasoline  with 
a  brush  to  the  bed,  so  it  reaches  every  seam  and  crack. 
This  must  never  be  done  in  a  house  where  fire  or  gas 
is  burning. 

A  well-made  bed  has  the  bottom  sheet  drawn  in  tightly, 
with  no  wrinkles,  the  top  sheets  turned  over  the  blankets 
or  comforts,  and  all  the  covers  tucked  neatly  in  at 
sides  and  bottom.  The  pillows  are  smooth  and  neatly 
placed.  A  well  kept  bed  has  its  covers  thrown  back  before 
an  open  window  to  air  as  soon  as  its  owner  gets  up  in  the 
morning.  A  well  kept  bed  is  aired  at  least  one-half  hour 
before  it  is  made  up  again,  even  in  winter.  If  it  is  too 
cold  to  sleep  in,  the  sheets  can  be  warmed  with  a  hot  water 
bottle  or  a  hot  brick  wrapped  in  a  clean  cloth.  Once  a 
week  the  pillow  cases  and  sheets  are  changed  for  fresh 
ones.  Cotton  sheets  are  liked  better  by  many  people  than 
linen  ones,  because  linen  sheets  are  very  cold  in  winter. 
The  material  is  not  important,  but  the  cleanliness  is.  Boys 
as  well  as  girls  should  know  how  to  make  and  care  for 
their  beds.  Soldiers  as  well  as  nurses  learn  how  to  make 
good  beds. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

What  makes  a  good  modern  bedroom?  "Were  the  bed- 
rooms of  Colonial  days  good  or  poor,  according  to  our 
ideas  to-day?  Why? 

What  is  the  proper  way  to  make  a  bed?  Can  you  do  it 
this  way?  What  is  the  proper  way  to  keep  a  bed  sweet 
and  clean? 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  LIVING-ROOM 

"  'Will  you  walk  into  my  parlor!' 

Said  the  spider  to  the  fly 
'It's  the  prettiest  little  parlor 
That  ever  you  did  spy.'  " 

So  sang  Ruth  as  she  threw  wide  the  front  door 
for  Uncle  George  to  enter. 

Uncle  George  gaily  returned  Ruth's  courtesy  with 
a  low  bow,  swinging  his  soft  hat  until  it  almost 
touched  the  floor  and  then  laying  it  against  his  heart 
as  he  bowed.  " Verily,  fair  damsel,"  said  he,  "in  all 
my  wanderings,  never  have  mine  eyes  seen  a  finer  hall 
nor  a  fairer  hostess !"  Then  dropping  his  lordly  air, 
he  sank  into  a  chair  before  the  fireplace.  "Come  sit 
on  my  chair-arm,  Ruthie,  and  tell  me  all  the  wonders 
of  your  house-furnishing." 
112 


THE  LIVING-ROOM  113 

"Well,"  said  Ruth,  "the  kitchen  is  all  fixed  and 
so  are  the  bathroom  and  my  room.  This  room  we  are 
going  to  call  the  'living-room.'  Dorothy  Frost  was 
in  yesterday  and  she  said,  'Oh,  dear,  aren't  you  going 
to  have  any  parlor  or  drawing-room?'  in  the  "most 
snippy  sort  of  voice.  Then  she  started  to  describe  her 


grandmother's  drawing-room.  She  said  it  had  a  vel- 
vet carpet  with  furniture  upholstered  in  green  plush 
to  match  and  at  the  windows  there  were  plush  por- 
tieres. And  she  said  her  grandmother  had  more  vases 
and  pictures  and  ornaments  in  her  parlor  than  we 
have  in  our  whole  house." 

" Probably    she    has,"    nodded    Uncle    George. 


114  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

''Some  people  seem  to  think  that  a  room  is  meant 
only  to  show  off  how  much  heavy,  ugly  stuffed  furni- 
ture and  dusty  drapery  and  how  many  useless  gim- 
cracks  they  own.  Then  they  pull  down  the  shades 
and  shut  all  the  windows,  so  the  sun  and  dust  shan't 
hurt  their  precious  belongings.  But  you  know, 
Ruthie,  this  is  a  real  living-room.  A  parlor  originally 
meant  a  room  for  people  to  go  to  when  they  wanted  to 
have  a  chance  to  talk  together.  The  French  word  for 
talk  is  'parler.'  And  a  drawing-room  was  a  '  with- 
drawing' room,  to  which  people  could  withdraw  when 
they  wanted  a  quiet  time.  But  this  room  of  yours 
and  Paul's  is  a  room  where  you  are  going  to  eat  and 
work  and  play  and  study,  a  real  living-room  like  the 
i hall'  where  our  ancestors  used  to  live." 

"  Mother  has  been  reading  some  of  Ivanhoe  to  me, 
and  it  tells  about  the  great  hall  where  they  all  ate 
and  lived.  She  said  they  had  a  great  table  like  a 
letter  T  that  was  just  planks  lying  on  a  sort  of  saw- 
horse  and  everyone  that  came  in,  no  matter  whether 
they  knew  the  family  or  not,  was  welcome  to  sit  down 
and  eat  with  the  rest. ' ' 

"Yes,"  said  Uncle  George,  "in  olden  times  people 
used  to  keep  'open  house,'  as  they  called  it — just  as 
some  people  do  in  the  country.  In  the  city  we  can't 
always  be  so  hospitable  to  strangers,  but  I  hope  you 
and  Paul  will  have  a  great  many  of  your  friends  here 
and  that  you  can  really  live  in  your  rooms.  I'm  glad 
to  see  that  you  have  bare  floors  and  painted  walls,  so 
that  everything  can  easily  be  kept  clean  without 
much  work." 


THE  LIVING-ROOM  115 

"Look,  Uncle  George/'  cried  Paul,  who  had  just 
come  in,  "here  is  my  bed.  Isn't  it  a  great  scheme? 
You  see,  it's  really  just  a  box  with  a  hinged  lid  and 
a  mattress  on  top.  In  the  daytime,  after  they  are 


aired  on  the  back  porch,  the  covers  go  right  into  the 
box  and  it  makes  a  nice  window-seat." 

"Fine!"  agreed  Uncle  George.  "And  you  are 
going  to  use  this  table  for  your  dinner-table?" 

' '  Yes, ' '  said  Ruth.  ' '  Isn  't  it  nice  ?  It 's  nothing 
but  a  kitchen  table,  but  we  stained  it  green  and  waxed 
it.  The  drawer  is  so  convenient  to  hold  the  napkins 


116 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


and  silver.  Of  course,  Paul  and  I  won't  eat  here  every 
day,  but  on  Saturdays  we  are  going  to  cook  our  own 
dinner  and  eat  it  here,  and  we  are  going  to  take  turns 
inviting  company.  Of  course,  it  isn't  so  handsome  as 
if  we  had  bought  a  real  mahogany  table,  but  I  think 
it's  lots  of  fun  to  see  how  nice  you  can  make  things 
with  just  a  tiny  bit  of  money." 


' '  Good  for  you,  Ruth ! ' '  said  Uncle  George.  "  It 's 
really  lots  more  fun  to  use  your  brains  making  some- 
thing pretty  for  next  to  nothing  than  it  is  to  go  down- 
town and  just  stupidly  buy  something  all  made." 

"Come  look  at  our  work-tables,"  begged  Paul, 
seizing  his  uncle's  hand  and  towing  him  across  the 
room.  Against  the  wall,  near  the  window  stood 
Paul's  work-bench — a  heavy,  old-fashioned  wash- 
stand  with  a  vise  fastened  at  one  end  and  a  fine 
array  of  tools  hanging  from  hooks  around  its  edge. 


THE  LIVING-ROOM 


117 


Underneath  a  pair  of  doors  hid  the  treasured  nails, 
wire,  old  lumber  and  other  odds  and  ends  dear  to  a 
boy's  heart. 

"And  see  my  writing-desk ! "  exclaimed  Ruth, 
pulling  Uncle  George  across  the  room.    Beside  the 


window,  so  thai;  the  light  fell  over  the  writer's  left 
shoulder,  a  rack  had  been  fastened  against  the  wall 
and  filled  with  paper,  pencils  and  other  materials. 
Under  the  rack  a  smooth  board  had  been  hinged  to 
the  wall.  A  stick  fastened  to  it  with  a  hinge  sup- 
ported it  when  in  use.  When  unused,  it  lay  flat 
against  the  wall. 

"Isn't  it  nice?"  said  Ruth.     "The  board  was  a 


118  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

bread-board,  that  is  why  it  is  so  nicely  finished.  I 
stained  it  to  match  the  table  and  stained  the  racks  and 
Father  helped  me  to  fix  the  hinges.  At  least  he  showed 
me  how,  but  I  really  did  it  all  myself.  We  made  it  to 
fold  against  the  wall  this  way  so  it  wouldn't  take  up 
so  much  room.'7 

"Dear  me,  Ruth,  I  begin  to  think  that  you  will 
fulfill  your  dream  and  become  a  sure-enough  archi- 
tect one  of  these  da}^s,"  said  her  uncle.  "This  is  the 
most  comfortable,  pleasant  room  that  I've  seen  for 
a  long  time.  I'm  quite  glad  that  I  had  to  be  out  of 
town  while  you  were  furnishing  it,  for  now  it  is  a 
lovely  surprise  to  see  how  cleverly  you  have  done  it." 

"Of  course,"  said  Ruth,  blushing  with  pleasure, 
"Father  and  Mother  helped  us  some  and  advised  us 
all  the  time;  but  most  of  it  we  actually  did  our- 
selves. We're  going  to  try  to  keep  it  just  as  nice  as 
it  is  now.  The  other  day  Mother  and  I  went  to  call 
on  the  Nixons,  and  Mrs.  Nixon  told  Mother  that  she 
couldn't  keep  her  house  decent.  She  said,  'The  chil- 
dren simply  destroy  everything  and  how  can  I  scold 
them  when  Mr.  Nixon  leaves  cigar-ends  and  cigar- 
ettes and  ashes  all  over  the  house?'  I'm  glad  Daddy 
doesn't  smoke.  Of  course,  I  couldn't  shut  him  out  of 
our  play-house,  but  I  'd  hate  to  have  it  all  smelled  up 
like  Jim  Nixon's  house." 

"If  bad  smells  and  untidy  houses  were  the  only 
evils  caused  by  tobacco,  it  wouldn't  be  so  bad,"  re- 
plied Uncle  George.  "You  can  smell  and  see  the  bad 
odor  and  the  untidiness,  but  tobacco  does  things  to  a 


THE  LIVING-ROOM  119 

boy's  body  and  mind  and  character  that  you  can't 
see  until  the  boy  is  badly  hurt  by  it." 

"Father  told  us,"  said  Euth,  "that  when  he  was 
little  he  started  smoking,  but  his  father  persuaded 
him  to  save  up  his  money  for  a  bicycle  instead.  He 
said  he  couldn't  study  at  all  when  he  was  smoking." 

"I  don't  suppose  he  could,"  agreed  Uncle  George. 
"You  see,  your  heart  is  the  pump  that  makes  all  your 
body  machinery  go.  Your  stomach  is  like  the  furnace 
that  keeps  the  fire  going  in  the  engine.  Your  nerves 
are  the  signal  system  that  makes  all  the  parts  work 
together.  Now  tobacco  weakens  a  boy's  heart,  up- 
sets his  stomach  and  makes  his  nerves  weak  and 
' wobbly.'  In  other  words,  it  attacks  him  in  several 
places  at  once.  Tobacco  never  made  anyone  healthier 
or  stronger — not  even  a  full-grown  man,  and  it  has 
made  thousands  of  boys  weak,  small,  stupid,  cowardly 
and  worthless.  That  is  why  almost  every  state  in  the 
union  has  passed  a  law  forbidding  anyone  to  sell  or 
give  cigarettes  or. tobacco  to  boys.  Uncle  Sam  needs 
a  strong,  husky  lot  of  boys  and  he  doesn't  want  their 
chances  spoiled  just  because  someone  wants  to  make 
money  by  selling  them  poison." 

"Well,"  said  Euth,  "I  can't  see  why  anyone 
should  want  to  do  something  that  makes  them  sick, 
that  makes  other  people  uncomfortable  and  that  costs 
a  lot  of  money." 

"Let's  hope,  Euthie,"  said  Uncle  George,  "that 
the  day  is  not  far  off  when  everyone  will  feel  as 
you  do." 


120  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

We  have  parlors  or  drawing  rooms  for  company,  but 
we  have  living-rooms  for  our  own  enjoyment.  Since  our 
living-rooms  are  for  use  and  not  for  show  we  want  them 
to  be  comfortable  first  of  all.  We  want  our  living-rooms 
simply  furnished,  so  that  they  will  be  easy  to  keep  fresh 
and  clean.  We  want  the  colors  on  walls  and  floors  to  be 
restful  and  pleasing  to  ourselves.  The  walls  and  wood 
surfaces  should  be  smooth  and  easily  cleaned.  We  want 
no  unnecessary  ornaments  or  furniture.  Such  things 
crowd  us,  are  easy  to  break  and  much  trouble  to  take 
care  of. 

The  table  in  our  living-room  should  be  large  enough 
to  be  useful.  It  need  not  be  expensive,  but  it  should  be 
spotless,  of  a  convenient  size  and  well  placed.  If  a  desk 
is  in  the  living-room  it  must  be  placed  so  that  light  will 
fall  over  the  writer's  left  shoulder  from  window  by  day 
and  from  lamp  by  night.  Comfortable,  strong  and  plain 
chairs  are  better  than  fancy  ones,  which  may  be  hard  to 
keep  clean  and  may  be  uncomfortable  to  sit  in.  The  com- 
fort of  every  member  of  the  family  who  uses  the  living- 
room  should  be  looked  after.  After  we  have  chosen  the 
furnishings  for  our  living-room  we  must  keep  it  in  good 
condition.  First,  it  must  always  be  neat.  Of  course  this 
means  clean.  But  it  also  means  that  if  there  are  any 
plants  or  flowers  in  the  room  they  are  always  kept  fresh. 
Magazines  and  books  are  placed  in  order  on  the  table. 
The  writing  desk  is  always  tidy.  The  room  is  aired  every 
day  so  that  if  the  air  has  been  spoiled  by  tobacco  smoke 
it  may  be  freshened  again. 

,  We  will  remember  that  the  nicotine  in  tobacco  is  in- 
jurious to  the  hearts  of  growing  boys,  to  their  digestive 
organs  and  nervous  systems.  It  is  much  worse  to  spoil 
your  future  health  than  to  do  without  tobacco  while  you 
are  growing. 


THE  LIVING-ROOM  121 

TO   THINK   ABOUT 

Have  you  ever  .seen  home-made  furniture  that  you 
liked?  What  would  be  some  advantages  of  home-made 
furniture?  Before  a  person  started  to  make,  or  to  deco- 
rate furniture,  what  could  he  do  to  be  sure  that  he  would 
have  something  really  good  when  the  work  was  done?  Try 
to  find  books  in  your  library  which  give  pictures  of  beau- 
tiful furniture.  Then  make  a  trip  to  a  furniture  store 
and  pick  out  the  pieces  you  find  like  the  most  beautiful 
pictures.  Then  decide  what  you  consider  the  marks  of 
beautiful  furniture. 

What  kinds  of  draperies  should  be  selected  for  com- 
fort and  beauty  and  health? 

How  should  the  living-room  be  furnished  so  that  it  will 
be  easy  to  keep  clean? 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Just  as  you  designed  a  bedroom,  now  design  a,  living- 
room.  Plan  the  shape,  the  location  in  the  house,  the 
furniture,  the  furnishings  you  think  would  make  a 
comfortable  and  attractive  living-room.  Could  you  make 
a  painting  of  it? 

Can  you  find  pictures  in  magazines  of  very  simple 
living-rooms?  What  do  you  think  are  the  best  things 
about  these  living-rooms? 

Go  to  a  furniture  store  some  day  and  pick  out  drap- 
eries and  furniture  which  are  simple  and  beautiful.  How 
cheaply  could  you  furnish  a  pretty  room? 


CHAPTER  XIII 
A  MODERN  CRUSADE 

IT  was  such  a  warm  afternoon  that  Uncle  George 
had  almost  fallen  asleep  over  his  newspaper.  He  was 
just  dozing  off  when  he  was  roused  by  a  shout  from 
Paul,  who  ran  up  the  path  waving  a  paper  over 
his  head. 

"Look,  Uncle  George !"  he  cried.  "I've  won  my 
certificate !  I  'm  a  Page ! ' ' 

"Bless  my  soul,"  cried  Uncle  George,  "I  thought 
Knights  and  Pages  lived  in  the  olden  days,  not  in 
these  commonplace  times.  What  sort  of  Page  are 
you  and  who  made  you  one?" 

"I  made  myself  one,"  replied  Paul  proudly. 
As  he  spoke,  he  spread  out  on  Uncle  George's 
knee  the  paper,  which  was  headed  "Modern 
Health  Crusaders." 

"You  see,  Uncle  George,"  he  continued,  "two 
weeks  ago  my  teacher,  Miss  Hood,  gave  the  class  a 
long  talk  about  tuberculosis.  She  told  us  what  a 
dreadful  lot  of  children  and  young  people  die  of  it- 
one  every  three  minutes  here  in  America,  she  said. 
Then  she  explained  how  it  comes  from  a  germ  and 
how  when  a  person  who  has  tuberculosis  spits  or 
sneezes  or  coughs  the  germs  fly  out  of  his  mouth.  She 
said  that's  one  reason  why  we  ought  never  to  drink 
from  a  public  cup,  or  put  things  into  our  mouths,  or 
spit  in  the  street," 

122 


A  MODERN  CRUSADE 


124  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"What  are  these  ' chores'  that  are  written  down 
here?"  asked  Uncle  George? 

"Those  are  the  things  we  have  to  do  to  help  us 
fight  tuberculosis  and  other  diseases.  You  see,  Miss 
Hood  told  us  the  story  of  St.  George  and  how  he 
killed  the  dragon  that  was  eating  up  the  little  chil- 
dren. Then  she  said  that  tuberculosis  was  like  a 
modern  dragon  and  that  if  it  was  to  be  ended,  we  must 
all  learn  to  be  very  strong,  like  St.  George." 

"And  these  are  the  chores  that  you  must  do  in 
order  to  be  strong?"  asked  Uncle  George. 

"Yes,"  said  Paul.  "Mother  puts  a  cross  every 
night  on  my  record  for  every  chore  that  I  have  done. 
IVe  done  them  for  two  weeks  now,  so  to-day  Miss 
Hood  gave  me  this  certificate,  to  show  that  I  am  a 
Page  in  the  Modern  Health  Crusaders.  If  I  keep  it 
up  for  three  more  weeks,  I  shall  be  a  Squire  and  have 
a  round  badge.  Then  later  you  get  to  be  a  Knight 
and  finally  a  Knight  Banneret.  The  Knight  Ban- 
nerets have  gold-plated  pins.  You  have  to  do  the 
chores  for  fifteen  weeks  to  be  a  Knight  Banneret; 
but  of  course  they  allow  for  your  forgetting  once  in  a 
while — only  you  don't  get  to  be  a  Knight  so  soon. 
It's  lots  of  fun.  Our  whole  school  has  joined  and 
there  are  going  to  be  tournaments  to  see  which  class 
can  make  the  best  record.  Every  year  there  is  a 
National  Tournament,  to  see  which  school  can  make 
the  best  score  in  Health  Knighthood." 

While  Paul  had  been  talking  excitedly  on,  Uncle 
George  had  been  reading  the  list  of  Health  Chores. 
Here  they  are : 


A  MODERN  CRUSADE  125 

1.  I  washed  my  hands  before  each  meal  to-day. 

2.  I  washed  not  only  my  face  but  my  ears  and  neck 
and  I  cleaned  my  finger-nails  to-day. 

3.  I  kept  fingers,  pencils  and  everything  likely  to 
be   unclean   or   injurious   out   of   my   mouth   and 
nose  to-day. 

4.  I  brushed  my  teeth  thoroughly  after  breakfast 
and  after  the  evening  meal  to-day. 

5.  I  took  ten  or  more  slow,  deep  breaths  of  fresh 
air  to-day.    I  was  careful  to  protect  others  if  I  spit, 
coughed  or  sneezed. 

6.  I  played  outdoors  or  with  windows  open  more 
than  thirty  minutes  to-day. 

7.  I  was  in  bed  ten  hours  or  more  last  night  and 
kept  my  windows  open. 

8.  I  drank  four  glasses  of  water,  including  a  drink 
before  each  meal,  and  drank  no  tea,  coffee,  nor  other 
injurious  drinks  to-day. 

9.  I  tried  to  eat  only  wholesome  food  and  to  eat 
slowly.    I  went  to  toilet  at  my  regular  time. 

10.  I  tried  hard  to-day  to  sit  up  and  stand  up 
straight;  to  keep  neat,  cheerful  and  clean-minded; 
and  to  be  helpful  to  others. 

11.  I  took  a  full  bath  on  each  of  the  days  of  the 
week  that  are  checked  (x). 

Total  number  of  chores  done  each  day 

"Now  that  is  what  I  call  a  fine  idea,"  said  Uncle 
George.  "I  think  I'd  like  to  become  a  Crusader  my- 
self. You  know  that  while  Aunt  Lou  and  the  baby  are 
away  I'm  going  to  stay  here  with  you.  Suppose  you 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

ask  Miss  Hood  whether  she  will  let  me  have  a  score 
card,  too,  and  you  and  I  will  see  which  one  can  remem- 
ber the  best." 


"That  will  be  great!"  cried  Paul  enthusiastically. 
"I've  got  the  start  of  you,  though,  for  I've  been  doing 
it  two  weeks  and  it's  lots  easier  for  me  to  remember 
than  it  was  at  first." 

"I  think,"  said  Uncle  George,  "that  I  will  put 
my  tent  cot  on  the  back  porch  of  the  play-house,  if 
you  are  willing.  Then  I  can  get  a  lot  of  fresh  air. " 

"I  love  sleeping  outdoors,"  replied  Paul.  "All  last 
winter  I  slept  out  on  our  porch.  Mother  used  to  make 
my  covers  into  a  sleeping-bag.  She  tucked  them 
under  the  pad  that  covers  the  mattress ;  nothing  but 
the  top  quilt  was  tucked  under  the  mattress  itself. 
It  kept  me  fine  and  warm." 


A  MODERN  CRUSADE  127 

"Did  your  head  get  cold?"  asked  Uncle  George. 

'Yes,  at  first,  but  Mother  knitted  me  a  helmet 

like  the  soldiers  had.    I  pulled  it  way  round  my  face, 

so  just  my  nose  stuck  out  and  I  didn't  feel  cold  even 

one  night  when  it  was  three  below  zero." 


"We  haven't  any  sleeping-porch  at  our  house," 
said  Uncle  George,  "but  this  winter  I'm  going  to  rig 
up  a  window  tent  for  my  bed.  Did  you  ever  see 
one?  I'm  going  to  take  two  heavy  sheets  and  sew 
them  together  along  the  sides.  Then  I  shall  tack  the 
top  to  the  top  of  the  window-casing  and  along  down 
the  sides  of  the  window.  The  bottom  I  shall  tie  with 
tape  to  the  side-rail  of  my  bed,  after  I  am  in  it.  You 
can  buy  rather  fancier  tents,  but  I'm  sure  mine  will 
do  perfectly  well.  It  will  give  me  all  the  fresh  air 


128 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


I  want  and  on  the  very  cold  nights  my  room  will  not 
get  so  dreadfully  cold  that  I  shall  hate  to  dress  in  it." 


"Miss  Hood  told  us,"  said  Paul,  "that  before  the 
white  men  came  to  America  the  Indians  were  very 
strong  and  well,  because  they  lived  outdoors  so  much, 
but  that  after  they  began  to  live  in  houses  they  came 
down  with  tuberculosis,  lots  of  them. ' ' 

' '  I  don 't  doubt  it, ' '  nodded  Uncle  George.  '  '  You 
know,  Paul,  that  there  is  no  medicine  to  cure  tubercu- 
losis. Fresh  air,  sunshine,  good  food,  right  exercise 
and  plenty  of  sleep  are  the  only  remedies.  Of  course, 


A  MODERN  CRUSADE  129 

there  are  tuberculosis  germs  about  most  of  the  time; 
but  there  is  no  use  in  fretting  very  much  about  germs. 
I  don  t  mean  that  you  should  be  careless  and  use  pub- 
lic cups  or  towels  or  put  things  into  your  mouth  It 
is  just  as  important  to  keep  yourself  in  first-rate  con- 
dition, after  all,  as  to  avoid  germs.  Then,  if  a  germ 
should  happen  along,  he  would  take  one  look  at  your 
red  cheeks  and  bright  eyes  and  straight  figure  and  he 
would  say,  'No  use  for  me  to  tackle  him!'  " 

"Yes,"  laughed  Paul.  "If  a  germ  saw  me,  I  guess 
he'd  move  right  on  until  he  saw  Kid  Frost.  He's 
awfully  pale  and  sickly,  you  know.  Then  Mr.  Germ 
would  just  go  for  poor  Kid  and  finish  him." 

"Has  Kid  joined  the  Health  Crusaders?"  in- 
quired Uncle  George. 

"Yes,"  said  Paul,  "but  he's  having  an  awful 
time  to  remember.  Kid's  all  right,  though.  He'll 
get  his  badge  in  time." 

They  sat  silent  for  a  time.  Then  Uncle  George 
said,  "Do  you  know,  Paul,  I've  been  thinking  about 
the  old  Crusaders  who  went  to  Palestine 
to  get  the  Saviour's  tomb  away  from  the 
heathen.  They  were  brave  men  and 
doubtless  thought  they  were  doing  a  fine 
thing.  But  how  much  more  worth  while 
your  Crusade  is — not  to  rescue  an  empty 
tomb  from  a  lot  of  other  men,  but  to  save  your  body 
and  others'  bodies  from  sickness  and  death.  While 
we've  been  sitting  here,  I  made  up  some  verses  about 
it.  Would  you  like  to  hear  them  ? 


130  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

Paul  nodded  and  Uncle  George  repeated  these 
lines : 

"In  days  of  old,  Crusaders  bold, 
A  glittering  cavalcade, 
To  save  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
Eode  forth  on,  a  crusade. 

"Not  ours  to-day  to  fight  as  they 
With  battle-axe  and  brand ; 
'Tis  for  no  sepulchre  we  strive 
And  in  no  far-off  land. 

"We  seek  to  save  God's  temple, 
In  His  own  image  made, 
From  sickness,  suffering  and  death. 
This  is  our  new  Crusade !" 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Ask  your  teacher  to  write  to  the  National  Tubercu- 
losis Association,  370  Seventh  Avenue,  New  York,  and  get 
for  your  class  some  score-cards  and  directions  for  starting 
a  Modern  Health  Crusade.  When  you  have  learned  how  to 
do  it,  join  one  of  the  National  Tournaments.  How  good  a 
score  can  you  make  for  a  month  I 

THINGS  TO  EEMEMBER 

Sickness  and  disease  are  nearly  always  preventable. 
The  way  to  fight  them  is  by  acquiring  habits  that  will  make 
us  so  healthy  that  germs  can  do  us  no  harm.  One  of  the 
worst  of  these  germs  causes  tuberculosis.  No  medicine 
that  we  yet  know  will  cure  tuberculosis,  but  it  can  be  pre- 
vented by  good  food,  rest,  fresh  air  and  clean  ways  of 
living.  People  who  have  it  can  be  taught  how  to  prevent 
its  spread  and  how  to  improve  their  health  by  good  ways 
of  living. 


A  MODERN  CRUSADE  131 

Some  people  fear  that  fresh  air  will  give  them  colds. 
Nothing  is  more  untrue.  No  one  was  ever  hurt  by  sleep- 
ing outdoors  or  in  fresh  air,  if  his  body  had  been  warm 
enough.  So  protect  your  head  with  a  cap  when  you  sleep 
outdoors.  Wear  warm  sleeping  garments.  Use  plenty  of 
covers.  Get  the  habit  of  sleeping  with  windows  open. 
Remember  that  to  do  a  thing  once  in  a  while  is  not  so 
valuable  as  to  do  it  every  day  at  the  same  time.  Each 
time  we  do  anything  it  gets  easier  to  do  that  thing.  Soon 
what  was  hard  to  do  becomes  a  habit.  We  form  health 
habits  as  we  do  any  other  habits.  Our  health  is  no  better 
than  our  health  habits.* 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Can  you  give  a  list  of  eleven  health  habits  of  the 
Modern  Health  Crusade?  How  many  of  these  habits 
have  you? 

Can  you  explain  why  each  one  was  chosen  as  a  habit 
worth  forming? 

Can  you  keep  all  eleven  habits  for  one  week! 
Two  weeks? 

How  long  has  it  taken  you  to  become  a  page  ?  A  knight? 

What  arguments  will  you  use  to  persuade  some  other 
boy  or  girl  to  join  the  Modern  Health  Crusade? 

*  The  Modern  Health  Crusade  is  a  fight  to  get  good  health  habits. 
Read  again  the  list  of  these  habits  on  the  card  Paul  showed  his  Uncle 
George.  Every  boy  or  girl  should  possess  these  habits  before  he  is  fourteen 
years  old. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

SCREENS  AND  TRAPS 

6 '  AND  now, ' '  said  Father, ' '  all  that  the  house  needs 
is  a  set  of  good,  stout  screens  at  all  the  windows  to 
keep  out  the  mosquitoes  and  flies." 

"It  makes  me  cross,"  said  Uncle  George,  "to 
think  that  Pleasantville  doesn't  get  rid  of  its  flies  and 
mosquitoes — then  we  should  not  need  screens.  1 
went  past  Mr.  Mullins'  stable  to-day  and  I  don't 
believe  he  has  had  the  manure  carted  away  for  weeks. 
The  flies  are  breeding  in  it  by  thousands.  It's  no 
wonder  that  his  grocery  store  is  full  of  them. ' ' 

"And  every  house  near  that  stable  is  pestered  with 
them,  too,"  said  Mother.  "It's  rather  late  for  a  fly* 
killing  campaign  this  summer,  but  next  year,  early 
in  the  spring,  I  really  think  we  ought  to  start  one. 
If  all  the  stables  and  outhouses  are  made  clean  and 
all  the  garbage  pails  covered,  so  that  the  flies  have 
no  place  to  lay  their  eggs  and  nothing  to  eat,  we  may 
be  able,  in  another  year,  to  do  almost  without  screens. ' ' 

' '  It  doesn  't  seem  fair,  does  it  ?  "  said  Paul.  ' '  Just 
because  Mr.  Mullins  is  lazy  and  careless,  we  have  to 
buy  screens  for  our  house.  If  he  lets  the  flies  lay  eggs 
in  his  barn,  he  ought  to  pay  for  our  screens." 

"I  quite  agree  with  you,  Paul.  It  isn't  fair  at 
all,"  agreed  Mother.  "But  that  is  what  the  Bible 
means  when  it  says,  'Ye  are  all  members  one  of  an- 
other.' If  any  one  of  us  is  selfish  and  careless  it 

132 


SCREENS  AND  TRAPS  133 

makes  trouble  for  the  rest.  People  don't  want  to 
live  each  one  off  by  himself.  We  want  to  live  together 
and  to  live  together  happily,  every  one  must  do 
his  part." 

"I  think/'  put  in  Ruth,  "that  we  had  better  get 
some  wire  dish  covers.  The  other  day,  when  I  was 
at  Hattie's  house,  we  made  some  fudge  and  put  it  out 
on  the  back  porch  to  cool.  You  know  Hattie  lives 
right  next  to  Mr.  Muffins.  The  flies  were  just  swarm- 
ing around  there,  so  Hattie  put  a  wire  cover  over 


the  pan  and  we  sat  and  laughed  at  the  hungry  way  the 
flies  gathered  arid  tried  to  get  at  the  fudge." 

"A  good  idea,  Ruthie,"  said  Mother.  "I'll  make 
you  a  present  of  two  or  three,  so  that  no  food  need 
ever  be  uncovered  in  your  kitchen.  Dear  me,  how 
different  things  are  now  from  what  they  were  when 
I  was  a  little  girl.  Of  course,  flies  have  always  been 
a  nuisance,  but  people  didn't  use  to  realize  that  they 
were  a  danger." 

" Father  told  us  a  lot  about  them  last  year,"  said 
Paul.  "He  explained  how  they  carry  disease  germs 
on  their  wings  and  feet,  so  that  people  who  are  dirty 


134 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


or  live  near  dirty  people  are  liable  to  get  typhoid  and 
cholera  germs  in  their  food. ' ' 

"Well,"  said  Mother,  "luckily  for  us,  our  neigh- 
bors are  pretty  clean.  There  aren't  many  stables  in 
town  and  all  the  houses  have  nice  clean  bathrooms, 
so  there  are  no  filthy  outhouses  for  the 
flies  to  get  to.  However,  we  will  have 
screens  in  all  the  windows  and  at  the 
kitchen  door.  Ruth  and  Paul  will  be 
very  careful  to  cover  all  the  food,  and 
our  garbage  pail  has  a  tight  cover. 
Then,  just  to  catch  any  fly  that  may 
find  his  way  in,  we'll  buy  some  of  the 
fly-paper  that  comes  in  long  strips  and 
can  be  hung  from  the  gas-jet.  You 
know,  flies  like  to  light  on  anything 
that  is  hanging." 

"I  really  don't  think  that  our 
screens  will  let  many  flies  bother  us  this 
summer,"  said  Uncle  George,  "but  I 
feel  like  the  man  who  said  that  screens 
made  him  feel  as  if  he  were  in  prison. 
He  decided  to  kill  and  trap  all  the  flies, 
so  that  they  should  be  in  prison  and  he 
could  be  free.  Next  summer  we  '11  start 
a  fly  campaign  here  in  Pleasantville 
and  then  we  all  can  burn  up  our  screens." 

"Oh,  no,  Uncle  George,"  cried  Ruth,  "you  are 
forgetting  about  the  mosquitoes.  We'll  need  the 
screens  for  them." 


SCREENS  AND  TRAPS  135 

"Well,  we'll  have  a  mosquito  campaign,  too/'  said 
Uncle  George. 

"Will  you  give  a  prize  to  the  fellow  that  kills  the 
most?"  asked  Paul. 

"I  don't  think  that  would  do  very  much  good," 
replied  his  uncle.  * '  You 
see,  Paul,  while  you  are 
killing  a  few  hundred, 
thousands  would  be  lay- 
ing their  eggs. ' ' 

"Do  they  lay  their 
eggs  in  stables  and  out- 
houses, like  the  flies?" 
asked  Ruth. 

"No,  they  lay  them 

damp    places    or   in 


in 

pools.    Mrs.  Mosquito  is 

fond  of  standing  water 

and  will  lay  her  eggs  in 

an  open   rain-barrel,   a 

partly-filled     drain,     or 

any  little  pool  of  water. 

I  remember  that  when  I  was  a  boy  my  grandmother's 

family  were  always  annoyed  with  mosquitoes,  until 

a  sink  was  put  into  her  kitchen  and  she  stopped 

throwing  water  out  by  the  back  porch  and  a  drain 

was  put  in.     Before,  there  had  always  been  a  wet 

spot  there  and  the  mosquitoes  bred  in  it." 

"But  suppose  you  live  near  a  pool,  what  can  you 
do?"  inquired  Paul*. 

"There  is  a  very  sure  way  to  kill  the  baby  mos- 


136 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


quitoes,"  said  Uncle  George.  "You  see,  when  the 
eggs  hatch,  the  baby  mosquitoes,  or  wigglers,  come  up 
to  the  top  of  the  water  to  breathe.  Now,  if  a  little 
kerosene  oil  is  poured  on  the  water,  the  wigglers  can- 
not get  through  to  the  air  and  will  all  drown.  The 


best  thing  is  to  drain  all  swampy  places  and  the  next 
is  to  oil  them." 

"Aunt  Louise  always  puts  a  mosquito  net  over 
the  baby  when  he  has  his  nap  and  at  night,  too. 
She  tucks  it  in  very  carefully,  so  no  flies  or  mos- 
quitoes can  reach  him, ' '  said  Mother.  ' '  Of  course,  we 
don't  in  this  part  of  the  country  get  malaria  or  yellow 
fever  from  the  mosquitoes  very  often,  as  they  do  in 
the  south,  but  they  break  one's  rest  and  are  a 
great  nuisance." 

"Listen,  folks,"  said  Father,  who  had  not  been 


SCREENS  AND  TRAPS 


138  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

joining  in  the  talk,  "how  is  this  for  a  verse  about 
flies  and  mosquitoes  ? 

"  There  was  a  young  fellow  named  Guy, 
Who  vowed  he  would  catch  every  fly, 
But  while  swarms  he  was  catching, 
More  swarms  kept  on  hatching 
In  the  dirt  in  a  stable  close  by. 

"Another  spry  youngster  called  Peter 
Said : '  Just  watch  me  catch  every  skeeter ! ' 
But  while  scores  he  dispatched, 
In  the  swamp,  millions  hatched, 
For  the  skeeters  were  fleeter  than  Peter. 

"So  on  Peter  and  Guy  'twas  impressed 
That  the  way  to  kill  off  any  pest 
Is  not  merely  by  slapping 
And  starving  and  trapping, 
But  destroying  the  eggs  and  the  nest. ' ' 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Gather  together  some  energetic  boys  and  girls  and 
form  an  Anti-fly  and  Mosquito  League.  Let  each  one  hunt 
out  all  the  possible  breeding  places  of  flies  or  mosquitoes 
in  his  or  her  neighborhood.  Get  together  and  make  each 
person  responsible  for  either  destroying  the  breeding 
place  or  getting  some  grown  people  to  do  it.  Next  make  a 
pledge  to  shut  every  screen  door  after  you  tightly,  and 
get  others  to  do  so;  help  keep  the  garbage  can  covered. 
Let  the  secretary  of  your  club  write  to  the  agricultural 
extension  department  of  the  International  Harvester 
Company,  of  Chicago,  111.,  for  plans  for  a  fly-trap.  Each 
member  of  the  club  should  help  make  at  least  one  trap  and 
use  it.  Each  member  of  the  club  should  be  responsible  for 
hunting  out  and  draining  off  standing  water  on  his  prem- 


SCREENS  AND  TRAPS  139 

ises.  Make  posters  showing  the  dangers  from  flies  or 
mosquitoes.  Think  of  other  things  to  do.  Ask  some 
grown  people  to  act  as  judges  to  decide  if  the  neighbor- 
hood is  made  better  by  your  club. 

Collect  some  "wigglers"  in  pond  water  and  fill  two 
jars  with  it.  Cover  the  jars  with  mosquito  netting.  Watch 
the  changes  in  the  wigglers  until  one  or  two  are  mosqui^ 
toes.  Then  pour  some  kerosene  or  other  oil  through  the 
netting  onto  the  water.  What  happens  to  the  "  wigglers  " 
and  " tumblers "  left  in  the  jar?  Put  a  goldfish  into  the 
other  jar. 

From  your  experiments,  what  have  you  learned  about 
destroying  mosquitoes?  Why  is  it  better  to  destroy 
these  young  ones  in  the  ponds  than  to  kill  single 
grown  mosquitoes? 

THINGS  TO  KEMEMBER 

No  good  citizen  allows  a  fly  on  his  premises  if  he  can 
help  it.  It  is  easy  to  get  rid  of  flies  by  following 
these  rules: 

1.  Every  window  and  door  must  have  well  fitting 
screens.   This  includes  windows  of  basements  and  attics. 

2.  All  food  in  the  house  should  be  kept  covered  if  it  is 
not  in  a  screened  house.    Wire  dish  covers  are  good  for 
this  purpose. 

3.  Fly-papers  should  be  used  to  catch  any  flies  that 
succeed  in  getting  into  the  house. 

4.  Garbage  pails  must  be  kept  clean.    They  must  be 
emptied  often.    They  must  have  well-fitting  lids. 

5.  All  manure  should  be  carried  away  from  stables 
daily.    But  if  it  is  kept  it  should  be  screened  and  treated 
with  a  substance  which  will  destroy  flies'  eggs. 

6.  These  other  ways  are  better  than  fly-swatters.  But 
"swatters,"  too,  should  be  at  hand  if  flies  are  numerous. 

7.  In  the  country,  where  people  do  not  have  bathrooms 


140  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

with  running  water,  the  toilets  should  be  so  screened  or 
cared  for  that  no  flies  can  visit  them. 

One  kind  of  mosquito  carries  malaria,  and  in  the 
South  another  kind  carries  yellow  fever.  Even  when 
mosquitoes  are  harmless  they  are  annoying  and  should 
be  destroyed.  Like  flies,  mosquitoes  are  best  fought  by 
destroying  their  breeding  places.  The  female  lays  eggs 
in  water — a  teaspoonful  is  enough.  These  eggs  hatch  in 
a  few  hours  or  a  day  into  wigglers  or  larvae.  After  feeding 
for  about  six  days  the  wigglers  become  tumblers — or 
pupae.  After  about  another  six  days  out  come  the  full 
fledged  mosquitoes,  which  fly  away  to  feed  on  plant  juices 
or  the  blood  of  people  whom  they  bite.  From  these  facts 
we  can  easily  see  that  the  best  ways  to  destroy  mos- 
quitoes are : 

1.  By  draining  all  ponds  and  pools  and  by  removing 
all  stagnant  water.    Even  very  small  amounts. 

2.  By  oiling  ponds  that  can't  be  drained. 
Sleeping  children  should  always  be  protected  from 

flies     and    mosquitoes    by    nets    unless    they    are    in 
screened  rooms. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

What  seven  rules  can  you  think  of  which  will  keep 
flies  away  from  our  premises  I 

How  many  of  these  things  can  a  child  do! 

Can  you  tell  the  story  of  a  mosquito  from  the  time  the 
egg  is  laid  till  it  is  hatched  1 

How  does  knowing  this  story  help  us  to  fight 
mosquitoes  1 

Are  there  mosquitoes  around  your  home?  If  there 
are,  find  their  breeding  place.  What  can  you  do  to  get 
rid  of  them? 


CHAPTER  XV 

MORE  SCREENS 

THE  rap,  rap,  rap  of  a  hammer  came  from  under 
Ruth's  window,  accompanied  by  Father's  cheerful 
voice,  singing, 

"When  I  was  a  bachelor  I  lived  by  myself, 
And  all  the  bread  and  cheese  I  got 
I  put  upon  the  shelf ; 

The  rats  and  the  mice  they  led  me  such  a  life 
I  had  to  go  to  London  to  buy  me  a  wife. ' ' 

"What  are  you  doing,  Daddy ?"  asked  Ruth,  pok- 
ing her  head  out  of  the  window.  "I  thought  you  had 
already  tacked  a  wire  screen  over  each  cellar  window. 
What  are  you  putting  that  heavy  wire  over  it  for?" 

Ruth's  question  was  natural.  The  cellar  window 
was  already  covered  with  fine  wire  netting,  such  as 
had  been  put  on  all  the  windows  to  keep  out  the  flies 
and  mosquitoes.  And  yet  Father  was  tacking  on  some 
heavy,  galvanized- wire  netting. 

Father  looked  up  and  gave  a  military  salute  by 
touching  the  hammer  to  his  hat  brim.  "Please 
ma'am,"  said  he,  "I  got  the  wire  for  the  same  reason 
that  the  fellow  in  the  rhyme  went  to  get  a  wife— 
because  of  the  rats  and  mice.  Any  able-bodied  mouse 
—and,  of  course,  any  rat— could  gnaw  through  a  fly- 
screen  without  half  trying,  but  I  fancy  this  heavy 
chicken-wire  will  be  too  much  for  them." 

141 


142 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


MORE  SCREENS  143 

"Why,"  said  Ruth,  "I  didn't  suppose  there  were 
many  rats  and  mice  around  here.  I  think  mice  are 
so  cunning.  Rats  and  mice  don't  really  do  very  much 
harm,  do  they?" 

"I  don't  suppose  there  are  so  many  here  in  Pleas- 
antville  as  in  places  where  there  are  a  great  many 
warehouses,  grain  elevators  and  big  markets  where 
they  can  find  lots  of  food.  Still,  there  are  plenty  of 
them.  You  know,  Ruth,  in  cities  there  are  easily  as 
many  rats  and  mice  as  there  are  people,  and  in  the 
country,  where  there  are  not.  large  numbers  of  people 
and  where  there  are  grain-fields  for  the  wild  field 
mice  to  live  in,  there  are  about  four  times  as  many 
rats  and  mice  as  there  are  humans.  As  for  their  not 
doing  much  harm,  a  rat  or  mouse  will  eat  or  spoil 
property  valued  at  one-half  cent  a  day." 

"Dear  me,"  exclaimed  Ruth,  "then  if  there  are 
as  many  of  them  as  there  are  people,  that  would  make 
— let's  see,  the  population  of  the  United  States  is— 

"Call  it  roughly  one  hundred  million,"  said 
Father.  ' '  Then,  if  each  rat  costs  us  half  a  cent  a  day, 
he  will  cost  us  how  much  a  year  ?" 

"One-half  of  365  days  is  182%.  That  would  be 
$1.82  for  each  rat  or  mouse.  And  if  there  are  a  hun- 
dred million  of  them,  they  would  cost  us  every  year 
$182,000,000 !"  cried  Ruth,  in  horrified  tones.  "Oh,  I 
must  have  multiplied  wrong.  Surely  it  can't  be  such 
a  frightful  amount  as  that." 

"No,  your  multiplication  was  all  right,  Ruthie. 
You  see  rats  raise  as  many  as  five  families  a  year 
and  there  are  usually  about  eight  baby  rats  in  each 


144  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

family.  If  they  did  not  have  so  many  enemies  to  kill 
them  off,  we  should  fare  as  badly  as  the  people  of 
Hamlin  did.  You  remember  the  Pied  Piper  of 

Hamlin,  don't  you,  and 
how  he  saved  the  city 
from  the  rats  and  mice 
that  were  ruining  it?" 
"Oh,  yes,"  said 
Ruth,  "the  poem  is  in 
my  reader.  He  played 
on  a  magic  pipe  and  the 
rats  and  mice  followed  him  and  were  drowned  in 
the  river." 

"The  river  Weser  in  the  poem  must  have  been  a 
wide  one,"  said  Father,  "for  rats  are  good  swimmers. 
They  can  swim  half  a  mile.  There's  another  poem 
that  you  must  have  read,  I  think.  It  tells  about  a 
wicked  Bishop  Hatto  who  took  refuge  in  a  high  tower 
in  the  river  Rhine,  but  the  rats  and  mice  swam  across 
the  river  and  ate  him  up. 

i '  For  they  have  swum  over  the  river  so  deep, 
And  they  have  climbed  the  shores  so  steep ; 
And  up  the  tower  their  way  is  bent, 
To  do  the  work  for  which  they  were  sent." 

"Goodness!"  cried  Ruth.  "It  makes  my  blood 
run  cold.  I  like  the  story  of  Dick  Whittington's  cat, 
that  ate  the  mice  and  rats,  better.  But,  Daddy,  you 
said  rats  and  mice  had  lots  of  enemies.  Of  course, 
cats  are  enemies  to  them,  but  what  other  enemies 
have  they?" 


MORE  SCREENS 


"Well,  some  dogs  are 
good    ratters,    and    owls, 
hawks  and  foxes  all  are 
very  valuable  in  destroying 
rats   and   mice.     I    can't 
think  why  we  persist  in 
killing  the  rats'  enemies 
and   giving   the  rats   and 
mice  free  board  and  lodg- 
ing.   The    ancient    Egyp- 
tians    were     wiser.    You 
know,  Egypt  used  to  be 
called  the  granary  of  the 
world,  because  she  raised 
such  quantities  of  grain. 
The  Egyptians  knew  that 
the  cats  were  enemies  of 
the    mice    and    rats    that 
would  destroy  their  crops, 
so  they  protected  and  cared 
for  the  cats.     The  fact  is 
that  they  even  declared  the 


\\ 


10 


146  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

cats  sacred  animals,  punished  anyone  who  hurt  them 
and  buried  them  in  state  in  a  special  cemetery.  Cat- 
mummies  have  been  found  in  large  numbers.77 

"How  funny!77  cried  Ruth.  "When  my  kittie 
dies,  I7m  going  to  make  her  a  nice  grave  under  the 
cherry-tree,  but  I  don7t  think  she7d  like  to  be  a 
mummy,  do  you?77 

"No;  if  she  feels  as  I  do  about  it,  I7m  sure  she 
wouldn't  like  it  at  all,77  said  Father.  "There  now, 
that  screen  is  on,  all  secure.  You  see,  Ruth,  the  foun- 
dations of  the  house  are  brick  and  cement,  so  I  hardly 
think  the  rats  could  get  in  that  way,  and  we  purposely 
left  an  open  space  under  the  back  porch  instead  of 
boarding  it  up,  and  all  our  walks  are  cinders,  instead 
of  board-walks,  so  the  rats  and  mice  won't  find  any 
hiding-places  ready  for  them.  A  number  of  years 
ago,  when  I  was  in  San  Francisco,  the  city  was  threat- 
ened with  the  plague.77 

"What's  that?"  inquired  Ruth. 

"A  very  dreadful  disease.  Rats  often  get  it,  and 
if  you  are  bitten  by  a  flea  from  a  rat  that  has  the 
plague,  you  will  probably  catch  it.  Well,  when  San 
Francisco  people  found  that  the  plague  was  among 
them  and  likely  to  be  spread,  they  laid  almost  six 
and  a  half  million  square  feet  of  concrete  to  take  the 
place  of  wooden  walks,  stable-floors,  area- ways  and 
other  places  where  the  rats  hid." 

"Well,  I  think  our  house  is  pretty  safe,"  said 
Ruth;  "it's  so  nice  and  new." 

"I  think  it  is,  but  don't  let  that  make  you  care- 
less. Just  as  long  as  rats  and  mice  know  they  can 


MORE  SCREENS  147 

get  a  'free  lunch'  in  a  house,  they  are  likely  to  come 
to  it.  When  I  was  at  college  I  used  to  wonder  why 
my  room  was  so  attractive  to  mice.  Almost  every 
night  I  could  hear  a  mouse  rustling  among  the  papers 
in  my  desk.  Finally  I  found  that  a  classmate  who 
studied  in  my  room  in  the  afternoon  kept  up  his 
spirits  while  he  was  studying  by  eating  crackers  and 
cookies.  He  threw  the  crumby  paper  into  my  waste- 


basket  and,  of  course,  Miss  Mouse  thought  I  was  in- 
viting her  to  come  and  dine. ' ' 

"Oh,  Mother  saw  that  we  had  glass  and  china  jars 
to  hold  all  our  flour  and  sugar  and  crackers  and  things 
in  our  new  pantry.  We  aren't  going  to  just  put  them 
'on  the  shelf,'  like  the  man  in  the  Mother  Goose 
rhyme,"  said  Ruth.  "At  Mrs.  Frost's  house,  one  day, 
Dorothy  Frost  said,  'Come  out  in  the  pantry,  Ruth, 
and  have  a  piece  of  my  birthday  cake.  There  was  a 
lot  left  over  last  night.'  So  we  went  out  into  the 
kitchen  pantry,  and  what  do  you  think?  The  cake 
was  on  a  plate  on  the  shelf  and  those  nasty  mice 


148 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


had  eaten  most  all  of  it  and  had  walked  all  over 
it.  You  could  see  the  mark  of  their  feet  on  the  choco- 
late icing. " 

" That's  the  kind  of  pantry  that  makes  a  mouse 
glad,  but  yours  is  the  kind  that  makes  him  sad," 
nodded  Father.  "You  must  remember,  too,  to  keep 
the  cover  on  the  garbage  pail.  Then  the  rats  and 
mice  will  give  you  a  wide  berth  and  go  where  the 
food  is  more  plentiful." 


"I'd  much  rather  do  that  than  have  a  house  full 
of  them  and  then  kill  them  in  traps,  the  way  the 
Frosts  do,"  said  Ruth. 

"So  would  I,"  agreed  Father.  "But  sometimes 
a  person  moves  into  a  place  where  there  are  rats  and 
mice  and  then  he  is  forced  to  kill  them.  Besides,  they 
kill  our  song  birds  and  suck  their  eggs  and  murder 
our  baby  chickens — so  I  think  we  do  quite  right  in 
killing  them  as  mercifully  as  we  can.  We  should  all 
learn  to  keep  them  away  by  giving  them  nothing  to 


MORE  SCREENS  149 

eat,  making  our  houses  rat-proof,  stopping  up  their 
holes  with  cement  and  broken  glass,  leaving  no  dark 
places  for  them  to  hide  in  and  trapping  them  or  poi- 
soning them.  But  I  don't  advise  poison.  It's  too 
dangerous  and  Rover  or  Pussy  might  get  at  it." 

"I  never  knew  before  how  much  harm  rats  and 
mice  do,"  said  Ruth  thoughtfully. 

" Hullo!"  cried  Paul,  who  had  come  up  and  been 
listening.  "I  know  a  conundrum  that  Uncle  George 
made  up  about  rats,  'When,  is  a  rat  troublesome?' 
Do  you  give  up  ?  'When  he's  a-gnawing!'  And  from 
what  you  say,  Daddy,  I  guess  he  is  pretty  'annoying,' 
isn't  he?" 

THINGS  TO  DO 

If  rats  and  mice  are  in  your  neighborhood  organize  an 
Anti  Mouse  and  Eat  Club.  Promise  to  leave  no  food  of 
any  kind  exposed;  to  keep  a  lookout  for  rats  and  mice, 
and  to  learn  how  they  can  be  controlled.  Decide  what 
measures  you  can  take.  Keep  a  record  for  six  months  of 
what  you  do.  If  successful  let  your  secretary  write  an  ac- 
count of  work  to  your  newspaper  and  have  it  published. 

Look  in  some  bird  book  and  find  as  many  kinds  of 
hawks  and  owls  as  you  can.  Learn  the  food  of  each. 
Which  are  man's  aids  against  mice? 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

Eats  and  mice  are  among  our  dangerous  enemies. 
They  carry  germs  of  disease.  They  destroy  young 
chickens  and  song  birds.  They  destroy  food  in  immense 
amounts.  They  injure  property.  They  cause  fires  by 
gnawing  matches. 

One  rat  or  mouse  may  do  little  damage.  But  a  rat 
has  babies  about  six  times  a  year  and  as  many  as  ten  at 


150  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

a  time.  It  is  because  there  are  so  many  of  them  that  they 
do  so  much  harm.    There  are  four  ways  to  get  rid  of  them. 

1.  Have  no  food  about  for  them.     All  food  in  our 
homes  should  be  in  ice  box,  screened  closet  or  in  metal, 
glass  or  china  covered  dishes.    Food  in  stores,  barns  or 
other  places  should  be  protected,  too,  by  some  kind  of  rat- 
proof  receptacle. 

2.  Keep  rats  and  mice  out  of  all  protected  places 
where  they  could  raise  families.    Screen  with  heavy  iron 
wire  screens  basement  windows  and  doors.     Have  solid 
foundations  of  tight  concrete  or  stone.    Have  concrete  or 
cinder  walks,  never  board  walks.     Have  spaces  under 
porches  or  steps  open  to  let  cats  or  terriers  get  at  any 
mice  or  rats  that  may  gather  there.    Fill  up  their  holes 
with  cement  and  broken  glass. 

3.  Traps  will  help  out  these  ways  of  preventing  mice. 
It  is  a  bad  plan  to  use  poison  for  rats,  because  the  poisons 
are  dangerous  to  children  and  pet  animals.    We  do  not 
want  the  rats  to  die  within  the  house  walls. 

4.  By  encouraging  the  enemies  of  rats  and  mice  we 
can  keep  down  their  numbers.    These  enemies  are  cats, 
terriers,  owls  and  hawks.    It  is  better  to  lose  a  chicken  to 
a  hawk  or  an  owl  now  and  then  than  to  kill  the  bird  that 
eats  hundreds  of  mice  in  its  lifetime. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Why  does  the  U.  S.  Government  publish  books  and 
papers  to  tell  people  how  to  get  rid  of  rats  and  mice? 

How  can  we  keep  rats  and  mice  from  getting  food  in 
our  houses? 

How  can  we  keep  rats  and  mice  from  findirtg  homes  in 
our  houses! 

What  enemies  have  rats  a«id  mice?  How  can  we1  pro- 
tect these  enemies  of  rats  and  mice?  How  many  of  these 
can  you  recognize? 

What  can  you  do  to  keep  mice  out  of  your  home? 


CHAPTER  XVI 
CLEANING  DAY 

' t  MOTHER,  ' '  said  Ruth,  looking  up  from  her  saucer 
of  oatmeal  one  Saturday  morning,  "when  are  Aunt 
Louise  and  the  baby  coming  home?" 

"Uncle  George  said  last  night  that  he  was  going 
up  to  Sky  top  to-day  to  bring  them  back  with  him," 
replied  Mother.  "I  am  so  anxious  to  see  Baby— he 
will  have  grown  so  much. in  these  two  months.  It 
doesn't  seem  possible  that  September  is  here  already. " 

"School  begins  Monday,"  chimed  in  Paul.  "I 
never  saw  such  a  short  vacation." 

"Being  so  busy  with  the  play-house  made  it  seem 
short,"  said  Ruth.  "Oh,  Mother,  just  think!  Aunt 
Louise  hasn't  seen  the  play-house  at  all.  Do  let's  have 
a  'housewarming,'  as  Mrs.  Vincent  had  when  she 
built  her  new  house  and  invite  Aunt  Louise  to  it." 

"I  think  that  would  be  lovely,"  agreed  Mother. 
"We  can  make  the  house  quite  spick  and  span  and  do 
our  marketing  to-day  and  celebrate  the  housewarm- 
ing  on  Sunday  afternoon." 

"Great !"  cried  Paul.  "I'll  tell  you  what,  Daddy, 
let's  you  and  I  plan  the  eats  while  Ruth  does  the 
sweeping  and  cleaning." 

"If  that  isn't  just  like  a  boy!"  exclaimed  Ruth. 
"They  always  want  to  do  the  eating  while  the  girls 
do  all  the  disagreeable  things." 

"Oh,  you "  began  Paul. 

151 


152  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

" Come/ come,"  interrupted  Mother.  "Let's  not 
forget  that  the  cornerstone  of  our  play-house  is  peace 
and  cooperation.  We'll  all  help  plan  what  Paul  calls 
the  'eats'  and  we'll  all  help  with  the  cleaning.  But 
I'm  sorry,  Ruth,  that  you  class  cleaning  among  i dis- 
agreeable '  things. ' ' 

"Well,"  admitted  Ruth,  "I  don't  really  suppose 
I've  ever  done  enough  cleaning  to  know  very  much 
about  it,  and  I'm  always  away  at  school  when  you  are 
doing  the  cleaning,  but  I  remember  at  the  farm  last 
summer  Hannah  used  to  hate  Fridays  when  she 
swept.  The  house  was  all  upset  and  Hannah  was  so 
tired  and  cross." 

"It  is  hard  work  to  clean  a  house  that  is  full  of 
carpets,  heavy  curtains  and  upholstered  furniture, 
like  Uncle  Silas's  farmhouse,"  said  Mother.  "But 
our  floors  are  bare,  with  only  small,  light  rugs.  We 
have  nothing  but  thin,  washable  curtains,  and  our 
chairs  have  cushions  that  can  be  taken  outdoors  and 
beaten.  Come  along,  folks,  and  let's  see  how  quickly 
and  well  we  can  put  things  into  apple-pie  order." 

As  Father  had  some  drawing  to  do,  he  was  ex- 
cused, but  Ruth  and  Paul  followed  Mother's  lead 
back  to  the  play-house. 

"Now,"  said  Mother,  "if  the  play-house  were  not 
brand  new,  we  should  have  to  give  it  a  regular,  thor- 
ough cleaning,  but  as  it  is,  I  don't  really  think  we  shall 
find  much  dirt.  Suppose,  Paul,  you  clean  the  bath- 
room, while  Ruth  and  I  start  on  her  room." 

Paul,  who  was  a  little  offended  still  at  Ruth's 
taunting  him  for  being  interested  only  in  eating, 


CLEANING  DAY 


153 


\ 


154  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

vowed  that  when  he  got  through  with  that  bathroom 
it  should  be  the  cleanest  one  in  Pleasant ville.  Armed 
with  a  soft  cloth  and  a  bar  of  white  soap,  he  washed 
and  wiped  the  tiling  along  the  wall.  Then  the  paint 
,was  carefully  wiped  off..  "Not  too  much  rubbing  on 
the  paint,  son, ' '  cautioned  mother  from  the  next  room. 
"All  it  needs  is  just  enough  to  take  off  any  finger- 
marks. Scrubbing  paint  with  washing  powders  and 
sapolio  takes  off  not  only  the  dirt,  but  the  paint,  too." 

The  tub  was  already  clean,  but  Paul  gave  it  an 
extra  rub  with  warm  water  and  soap.  Then  the  wash- 
stand  was  washed  and  wiped  dry  and  the  toilet-bowl 
was  carefully  washed  out  with  soapy  water  and  a 
long-handled  brush  that  Mother  had  bought  espe- 
cially for  it.  Next  the  faucets  were  polished  with  a 
piece  of  chamois  and  a  little  nickel  polish.  Last,  he 
washed  and  dried  the  tile  floor.  Paul  looked  around 
the  room  with  a  satisfied  sigh  and  called  to  Ruth, 
6  '  Come  in  here  and  see  whether  I  can  clean  or  not ! ' ' 

' '  You  certainly  can, ' '  declared  Ruth.  ' '  You  know, 
Paul,  I  didn't  say  boys  couldn't  do  things  just  as 
well  as  girls.  All  I  said  was  that  they'd  rather  eat 
than  work." 

"Let's  see  your  room,"  said  Paul. 

"Doesn't  it  look  nice*?"  said  Ruth,  proudly.  It 
did  look  very  nice,  indeed.  Mother  had  taken  the 
three  small  rugs  out  on  the  piazza  and  shaken  and 
brushed  them  while  Ruth  wiped  up  the  floor  with 
a  cloth  on  which  she  had  poured  a  very  little  kerosene. 
Then  Ruth  had  wiped  off  the  paint  while  Mother  had 
dusted  the  furniture  with  a  damp  cloth.  Lastly,  Ruth 


CLEANING  DAY  155 

had  wiped  off  all  the  pictures  and  replaced  the  rugs. 

"If  this  weren't  a  new  house,  we  ought  to  wipe 
down  the  walls  with  a  damp  cloth, "  said  Mother. 
"That  is  why  we  had  the  walls  painted  instead  of 
papering  them.  But  these  walls  are  still  clean. " 

"I  don't  think  we  need  wash  the  windows,"  said 
Ruth,  "because  we  just  washed  them  the  other  day. 
I  made  the  glass  all  whitish  with  Bon  Ami  and  water 
and  then  when  it  was  dry,  polished  it  off  with  soft 
tissue  paper. " 

i '  Yes, ' '  agreed  Mother, ' '  they  look  very  nice.  And 
we  just  cleaned  the  kitchen  very  thoroughly  yester- 
day— the  oilcloth  was  wiped  off  with  milk  to  keep  it 
clean  and  bright,  the  sink  was  scrubbed  out  with  hot 
water,  soap  and  ammonia,  and  the  stove  was  well 
blacked,  I  think  we  can  all  combine  in  cleaning 
the  living-room." 

While  they  worked,  Mother  amused  them  by 
telling  them  about  her  old  colored  Mammy.  "She 
used  to  make  the  most  dreadful  time  on  cleaning  days. 
She  would  flap  around  with  a  great  turkey-feather 
duster  that  'she  had  made  herself  from  barnyard 
feathers.  When  I  objected  to  the  dust,  she  would  only 
say,  'Sho,  child,  tucky-f edders  was  made  on  purpose 
for  to  dust  wid!  I  knew  how  to  dust  befo'  you  was 
born!'  I  tried  to  show  her  how  to  dust  with  a  damp 
cloth,  the  right  way,  but  she  simply  said,  'Huh!'  and 
went  on  using  the  turkey-feathers." 

"Did  you  have  floors  like  these,  or  did  you  have 
to  sweep  carpets?"  asked  Paul,  who  was  brushing 
up  the  hearth. 


156 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


" Almost  everyone  had  carpets  in  those  days," 
replied  Mother.  "I  used  to  have  to  sweep  my  room 
every  Saturday,  and  it  was  a  real  piece  of  work.  I 
used  to  tie  up  my  head  to  keep  my  hair  clean  and  tie 
a  damp  cloth  across  my  nose  to  keep  the  dust  from 


-   J. 


going  up  my  nose  and  so  on  down  into  my  throat 
and  air-pipes.  Then  when  the  carpet  was  swept, 
I  had  to  wait  for  the  dust  to  settle  out  of  the  air 
before  I  started  to  dust  the  furniture  and  pictures 
and  ornaments.  It  was  ever  so  much  harder  and 
dirtier  than  just  wiping  up  the  floor  and  carrying  the 
rugs  outside  to  brush  them,  as  we  do  now." 
"Does  dust  really  hurt  you?"  asked  Paul. 


CLEANING  DAY 


157 


"People  don't  often 
catch  any  real  disease 
from  dusty  air,"  an- 
swered Mother,  "but 
dirt  of  any  sort  is  bad  to 
take  into  your  nose  and 
throat.  I  have  often 
gotten  a  sore  throat 
from  dusty  air,  because 
the  tiny  pieces  of  grit  in 
the  dust  scratch  the  fine 
skin  that  lines  the  throat 
and  nose.  Then,  too, 
you  know  that  our  shoes 
bring  all  kinds  of  street- 
dirt  into  the  house  and 
some  of  this  dirt  may 
have  actual  disease-germs  in  it.  If  we  are  careless, 
some  of  this  dirt  may  get  into  our  food  or  onto  our 
hands  and  so  into  our  mouths  and  may  make  us  ill. 
But  any  way,  even  if  dirt  did  not  make  us  ill,  people 
who  respect  themselves  do  not  like  to  be  like  animals 
who  roll  in  the  dirt — they  want  to  feel  clean.  You 
know  that  in  Japan  they  have  a  very  sensible  custom 
of  making  everyone  leave  his  shoes  on  the  front  porch, 
so  that  no  dirt  from  the  street  is  tracked  in. " 

Just  then  Father  poked  his  head  in  at  the 
front  door.  "My,  what  a  busy  set  of  people!"  he 
cried.  "Aren't  you  almost  ready  for  luncheon  ? ' ' 

"Dear  me,"  said  Mother.  "I  had  forgotten 
about  luncheon. " 


158 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


"Oh,  I'm  inviting  you  to  lunch  with  me,"  said 
Father.  "Did  you  suppose  that  I  knew  nothing  about 
housekeeping  ?  I  'm  a  famous  cook.  Come  and  see. ' ' 

And  sure  enough,  Father  had  baked  a  big  pan  of 
apples  and  another  of  molasses  cake.  And  if  there 


is  anything  better  than  baked  apples  and  molasses 
cake  and  a  big  glass  of  milk,  I  don't  know  what  it  is. 
As  they  sat  enjoying  Father's  goodies,  he  took 
from  his  pocket  a  catalogue.  "I've  decided,"  he  said, 
to  celebrate  the  housewarming  at  the  play-house  by 
giving  Mother  something  for  the  big  house.  I  think 
we  need  a  vacuum  cleaner.  Here"  (laying  his 
finger  on  a  picture)  "is  the  one  I  have  in  mind.  I 


CLEANING  DAY 


159 


think  it   will  help  to  keep  the  house  clean  with 
little  trouble. " 

"How  does  it  work,  Daddy ?"  queried  Paul,  "and 
what  is  a  vacuum  $ ' ' 

"A  vacuum,"  explained  Father,  "means  a  place 
that  is  entirely  empty — that  has  nothing  whatever 
in  it,  not  even  air.  You  know  that  when  you  blow  for 
a  long  time,  you  can  force  most  of  the  air  out  of  your 
lungs.  Then,  if  you  stop  blowing,  the  air  will  rush 
into  your  empty  lungs  of  its  own  accord.  Get 
me  one  of  those  hollow-stemmed  reeds  out  of  the 
garden,  Paul." 

When  Paul  came  back  with  the  reed,  Father  cut 
off    a    piece    of    it, 
forming  a  hollow  tube. 
"I  don't  want  to  suck 

dust  into  my  lungs," 

he  said,  "so  we'll  rep- 
resent the  dust  by  this 

powdered  sugar  that 

I  spilled  on  the  cloth 

just  now.    Now,  I  will 

blow  the   air   out   of 

my  lungs,  so  there  is 

a  vacuum  there.  Then 

I  will  hold  the  tube 

in    my    mouth    over 

the    sugar    and    you 

watch  it." 

So  Father  put  the  tube  into  his  mouth  and  blew 

until  he  was  red  in  the  face,  then  he  held  the  tube  over 


160  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

the  sugar  while  Ruth  and  Paul  watched  eagerly.  In- 
stantly the  sugar  flew  up  the  tube  while  Father 
coughed  and  sputtered  as  the  cloud  of  sugar  went  into 
his  throat. 

"There,"  he  gasped,  when  he  could  speak  again. 
" That's  just  the  way  a  vacuum  cleaner  works.  The 
tube  and  bag  are  empty  and  the  dust  is  sucked  up  just 
the  way  the  sugar  was.  It's  the  quickest,  the  easiest 
and  the  cleanest  way  of  removing  dirt  that  was 
ever  invented." 

" Hurrah  for  the  new  vacuum  cleaner,"  cried 
Mother.  "Aunt  Louise  will  be  green  with  envy  and 
I  suppose  you  children  will  be  wanting  to  borrow  it 
for  the  play-house  right  away.  But  if  we  are  going 
to  buy  our  provisions  for  to-morrow,  we  must  clear 
off  this  lunch  table  and  get  to  market.  All  aboard 
for  the  kitchen!" 

THINGS  TO  DO 

There  are  many  modern  inventions  to  help  us  clean 
our  houses  and  buildings.  Suppose  you  collect  pictures 
from  magazines  illustrating  all  the  devices  you  see  adver- 
tised for  cleaning  anything  about  the  home.  Then  ar- 
range your  pictures  in  a  scrap-book  or  on  a  chart.  Put 
all  the  articles  used  for  the  same  purpose  together.  When 
you  have  finished  note  which  are  labor  saving  and  which 
ones  are  money  saving.  Which  ones  do  you  think  are  most 
important?  How  many  have  you  seen!  Where? 

Make  an  experiment  to  show  how  soap  helps  to  re- 
move greasy  dust.  Shake  up  some  oil  and  waiter  till  -the 
grease  is  mixed  through  the  water.  Then  let  it  stand. 
Now  shake  up  some  of  the  same  oil  and  water  with  some 
finely  scraped  soap.  Let  Ms  stand.  Does  the  grease 
again  come  to  the  top  or  has  it  vanished  into  the  soapy 


CLEANING  DAY  161 

water?  Does  this  help  explain  why  soap  and  lots  of  it 
must  be  used  to  get  greasy  things  really  clean? 

Perhaps  your  teacher  can  get  for  you  from  your  State 
or  City  Board  of  Health  some  little  round  glass  dishes 
filled  with  a  certain  kind  of  food  material  on  which  germs 
like  to  live.  If  so,  try  this  experiment.  While  some  one 
is  sweeping  at  home  or  in  school  open  the  little  dish  for 
a  few  moments.  Then  close  it  and  put  in  a  warm  dark 
place.  Now  get  a  dry  cloth  and  dust  the  room.  While  you 
are  doing  so  open  another  little  dish  for  five  minutes  near 
where  the  dusting  is  going  on.  Then  close  dish.  Now  get 
a  damp  cloth  and  dust  another  part  of  the  room.  Open  a 
third  dish  near-by.  Label  all  the  dishes,  and  in  a  couple 
of  days  look  at  them. 

What  does  the  experiment  tell  you  about  good  ways  to 
clean?  What  proof  does  it  give  that  germs  may  be  in  air? 

Try  the  experiment  Father  Weston  showed  Paul.  You 
can  use  a  lemonade  straw  very  well.  Explain  the  result 
to  some  one  so  that  he  will  understand  what  a  vacuum  is. 

THINGS  TO  KEMEMBEE 

The  problem  in  cleaning  wood  is  to  take  away  the  dirt 
without  spoiling  the  paint,  Eead  these  wise  rules:  To 
clean  painted  wood  get  ready  warm  water,  white  soap  and 
a  soft  cloth.  Wipe  the  wood  gently  with  plenty  of  the 
warm  soapy  water.  Rinse  off  the  soap  and  dry  the  wood. 
Too  much  rubbing  or  too  strong  soap  or  washing  powders 
will  take  off  the  paint. 

Painted  walls  can  be  wiped  down  the  same  way.  They 
are  cleaner  than  paper  for  this  reason. 

Hardwood  floors  can  be  kept  pretty  by  wiping  them 
with  a  soft  cloth  that  has  a  little  kerosene  in  it.  There  are 
many  other  expensive  floor  oils,  but  this  is  as  good  as  any 
if  you  are  careful  with  it. 

Rugs  should  be  taken  outside  to  be  beaten  and  shaken 
because  of  the  dust  which  we  do  not  want  in  the  house. 
11 


162  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

When  you  sweep  remember  to  have  windows  open.  When 
you  dust  remember  to  use  a  damp  or  slightly  oiled  cloth. 
Dust  may  contain  germs  brought  in  from  the  street  with 
dirt  on  our  shoes.  The  dust  does  not  usually  carry  danger- 
ous germs ;  it  does  irritate  our  throats  if  we  inhale  it,  For 
this  reason  bare  wood  floors,  painted  or  polished,  are 
more  sanitary  than  carpets.  Little  or  no  dust  is  stirred 
up  if  we  clean  them  correctly. 

We  wash  windows  with  Bon  Ami  or  some  other  clean- 
ing powder  in  water.  We  let  the  windows  dry  and  when 
the  glass  looks  white  we  polish  it  with  paper  till  it  shines. 

Sinks,  wash-basins  and  toilet-bowls  or  bathtubs  will 
get  greasy.  Soap  and  warm  water  and  some  ammonia  put 
on  with  a  brush  are  needed  to  remove  the  grease.  We 
use  its  own  long  handled  brush  for  the  toilet.  We  al- 
ways rinse  out  the  basins  we  have  used  with  hot  water 
after  cleaning  them. 

Faucets  and  metal  trimmings  need  to  be  polished  with 
silver  or  nickel  polish  and  a  chamois  to  get  them  bright. 

Mops  and  brushes  and  cloths  used  in  cleaning  should 
always  be  washed  out  in  soapy  water  and  aired  before 
we  put  them  away. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Make  a  trip  through  your  kitchen  and  cleaning  closet. 
Write  a  list  of  all  the  articles  you  find  there  used  to  keep 
the  house  clean.  What  would  you  choose  to  cleanse  the 
woodwork  of  your  room!  The  windows? 

How  would  you  sweep  and  dust?  What  do  you  think 
would  be  a  good  costume  to  wear? 

How  would  you  clean  up  the  bathroom?  Can  you  give 
any  reasons  for  what  you  do? 

Find  out  how  railroads  clean  the  coaches  at  the  end  of 
a  trip  and  tell  about  it.  Notice  how  your  school  is  cleaned 
at  the  end  of  a  day.  Do  you  or  do  you  not  think  these  are 
good  ways  ? 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  MARKET  BASKET 

THE  washing  and  wiping  of  the  dishes  was  made 
more  interesting  because  it  was  accompanied  by  a 
discussion  as  to  what  should  be  ordered  for  the  house- 
warming  dinner.  Mother  washed,  Ruth  wiped  and 
Paul  put  away  the  dishes,  while  Father  sat  with 
pencil  and  paper,  ready  to  write  down  the  list  of 
groceries  that  must  be  bought. 

" Let's  begin  with  the  meat.  What  kind  of  meat 
shall  we  have?"  said  Father. 

"  I  'd  like  to  have  Irish  stew, ' '  said  Ruth.  ' '  Stew 
isn't  so  stylish  as  chops,  but  I  know  how  to  make  it. 
We  learned  how  at  the  farm  last  summer,  and  it  was 
fine,  and  I  know  Uncle  George  likes  it." 

"Very  well,"  agreed  Mother.  "I  think  it  would 
be  nice  to  have  a  dinner  that  you  could  cook  your- 
selves, since  this  is  really  your  own  housewarming. 
Now  what  vegetables  shall  we  have?" 

"There  will  be  vegetables  enough  in  the  stew," 
said  Father,  "but  let's  have  a  salad.  Something  fresh 
and  green  always  looks  and  tastes  nice  and  is  good 
for  us,  besides." 

So  it  was  decided  to  have  stew  and  a  tomato  and 
lettuce  salad,  with  home-made  ice-cream  and  crushed 
peaches  for  dessert.  Mother  was  to  make  the  ice- 
cream and  Father  agreed  to  help  Paul  freeze  it.  Ruth 

163 


164 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


proudly  copied  out  the  bill  of  f are  for  the  dinner  on 
a  special  writing  tablet  that  she  had  fixed  herself. 
It  hung  with  a  pencil  attached,  beside  the  kitchen 
table  in  the  play-house.  It  was  ruled  with  red  ink 

into  two  lists,  one  showing 
what  wras  planned  for  the 
day's  meals  and  one  what 
must  be  bought.  Ruth  had 
spent  all  one  afternoon  de- 
signing a  fancy  border  for  it 
and  with  its  red-ink  ruling 
and  pencil  tied  on  with  red 
ribbon,  it  was  really  an  orna- 
ment to  the  kitchen. 
As  Mrs.  Weston  went  down  the  street  with  a  child 
hanging  on  each  arm,  they  were  hailed  by  Dorothy 
Frost.  "Come  along,  Dot,"  called  Euth,  "Aunt 
Louise  is  coming  home  and  we  are  inviting  her  to 
dinner  in  our  new  play-house,  so  we've  got  to  go  mar- 
keting for  the  things.  Want  to  come?" 

"Oh,"  exclaimed  Dorothy,  raising  her  eyebrows, 
"do  you  go  to  the  store  and  buy  your  -  groceries  ? 
Mother  always  telephones.  It's  ever  so  much  quicker 
and  easier.  No,  I  don't  believe  I  care  to  go  along — I 
don't  feel  very  well  to-day;  I've  got  a  headache." 

"Isn't  that  just  like  Dorothy!"  cried  Ruth,  in 
rather  a  vexed  tone.  "Why  is  she  always  so  snippy? 
I  suppose  it  is  easier,  though,  to  telephone,  especially 
on  rainy  days." 

"Of  course,  it's  easier,  if  you  are  willing  to  take 
whatever  1;he  butcher  and  grocer  choose  to  send  and 


THE  MARKET  BASKET  165 

pay  whatever  they  ask.  Mrs.  Frost  met  me  on  the 
street  the  other  day  on  her  way  to  the  grocer's.  She 
said  she  had  never  been  so  angry  in  her  life,  that 
Chase  and  Smith  had  been  sending  her  stale  vege- 


tables and  charging  her  twice  what  they  were  worth. 
I  told  her  that  I  always  went  to  the  store  or  market 
and  picked  out  what  I  wanted,  and  paid  for  it,  so  I 
always  know  what  I  was  getting  and  what  it  cost,  but 
she  said  that  was  too  much  trouble. " 

As  Mother  ended,  they  turned  into  the  meat  mar- 
ket. It  was  a  little  farther  away  than  some  other 
stores,  but  it  was  always  neat  and  clean,  with  spot- 
less counters  and  meat  blocks  and  Mr.  Sullivan,  who 
kept  it,  always  wore  a  snowy  apron  and  a  broad  smile. 
As  Mrs.  Weston  explained  that  she  wanted  two 
pounds  of  beef  from  the  top  of  the  round,  cut  up  for 
a  stew,  he  scoured  off  the  top  of  the  meat  block  with 
a  wire  brush,  leaving  it  smooth  and  clean.  Euth  and 
Paul  watched  him  as  he  quickly  and  deftly  cut 
the  meat  and  laid  it  on  the  automatic  scale.  It 
marked  just  exactly  two  pounds.  "I  want  you  to 
notice  the  scale  carefully,  Euth  and  Paul,"  said 


166 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


Mother.  "This  sort  of  scale  is  the  best,  because  it 
gives  no  chance  for  any  unfairness.  Whenever  you 
buy  anything  you  should  always  make  a  habit  of 

looking  at  the  scale,  to 
make  sure  that  you  are 
getting  full  weight." 

"I  don't  think  meat 
before  it's  cooked  looks 
very  good,"  remarked 
Euth. 

"Neither  do  I,"  said 
Mother,  "and  you  know 
that  as  a  rule,  I  don't  care 
to  have  you  and  Paul  eat 
very  much  of  it.  Plenty 
of  milk  and  eggs  are  bet- 
ter for  you,  but  I  know 
Uncle  George  is  fond  of 
meat.  So  if  you  have  to  buy  meat,  you  should  know 
how  good  meat  looks.  You  notice  that  this  beef  is 
bright  red,  not  bluish  as  stale  meat  becomes,  and  it 
has  little  streaks  of  fat  through  it,  which  makes  it 
more  tender  than  meat  that  is  perfectly  lean." 

The  next  stop  was  at  the  grocer's,  where  they 
bought  potatoes,  carrots,  onions  and  celery  for  the 
stew  and  the  tomatoes  and  lettuce  for  the  salad.  Ruth 
and  Paul  selected  the  vegetables  themselves,  follow- 
ing Mother's  advice  to  choose  those  that  looked  fresh 
and  unwrinkled,  and  Ruth  tested  the  peaches  by  a 
very  gentle  pressure,  to  make  sure  they  were  ripe. 
As  they  trudged  merrily  home  with  their  pur- 


THE  MARKET  BASKET  167 

chases  Mother  said,  "How  lucky  we  are  to  have  a 
butcher  like  Mr.  Sullivan  and  a  grocer  like  Mr.  Wil- 
lis, who  always  keep  clean  food  in  a  clean  store  and 
sell  it  at  a  fair  price." 

"How  do  you  know  what  is  a  fair  price?" 
asked  Paul. 

"The  papers  publish  lists  of  what  the  various 
things  cost  to  buy  at  wholesale — that  is,  in  large 
amounts — and  you  have  heard  Father  and  me  speak 
of  the  special  lists  of  prices  since  the  war.  By  read- 
ing the  papers  you  can  keep  track  of  what  things 
ought  to  cost.  Then,  too,  people  who  are  thrifty  know 
what  things  are  in  season  and  what  things  are  not. 
For  instance,  in  June  we  had  delicious  asparagus 
quite  cheaply,  but  now  asparagus  is  out  of  season 
and  fresh  asparagus  can  be  raised  only  in  hot-houses, 
so  of  course  it  is  very  high  priced.  Strawberries  were 
cheap  three  months  ago,  but  now  they  are  very  high." 

"Do  you  remember  last  summer,  Mother,  when 
you  took  us  to  New  York,  how  we  saw  a  lot  of  people 
buying  things  from  pushcarts'?"  said  Ruth. 

"Yes,  indeed,"  said  Mother.  "Hester  Street 
looked  like  some  scene  in  Europe,  with  pushcarts 
all  along  the  curb,  surrounded  with  women  and  chil- 
dren. I  hate  to  think  of  people  buying  their  food 
from  such  dirty  carts,  handled  by  dirty  men  and  cov- 
ered with  the  street  dust.  If  I  lived  in  a  great  city 
and  had  to  buy  as  cheaply  as  I  could,  I  think  I  should 
try  to  go  to  one  of  the  big  markets,  instead  of  buying 
from  a  street-cart.  The  markets  buy  great  quantities 
of  vegetables,  fruit,  fish  and  meat,  right  from  the 


168 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


THE  MARKET  BASKET 


169 


country  at  wholesale,  so  they  can  sell  it  cheaply,  and 
it  is  fresher  than  when  it  has  traveled  about  in  a  cart. 
But  we  are  fortunate  here  in  Pleasantville,  to  have 
such  good  markets,  where  things  are  fresh  and  clean. ' ' 


As  they  entered  the  home  gate,  Father  came  down 
the  walk  to  meet  them.  ' '  This  little  pig  went  to  mar- 
ket/ '  he  said,  "and  let's  see  what  came  hack  in  the 
market  basket  for  the  lazy  pig  who  staid  home." 


THINGS  TO  DO 

Find  out  if  there  is  a  public  market  near  your  home 
and  visit  it.  Find  out  where  the  food  comes  from ;  if  the 
people  that  sell  it  raised  it,  and  when  it  was  prepared  for 
the  market.  Notice  how  the  food  is  protected  from  heat, 
dust,  flies,  handling.  Are  there  telephones?  Delivery 
wagons!  Note  the  price  of  ten  common  foods.  What 
do  you  find  out  about  quality  and  price  of  food  at 
these  markets  ? 

Visit  a  grocery  and  try  to  find  out  the  same  things. 
What  do  you  learn  about  quality  and  price  here?  What 


170  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

advantage  is  there  in  buying  at  a  market?    A  grocery! 

Visit  a  commission  market  if  you  can.  Compare  it 
with  the  public  market  and  the  grocery. 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBEB 

To  get  good  food  cheaply  we  must  use  our  brains.  A 
careful  housekeeper  makes  a  list  of  what  she  needs  for 
the  day  before  she  begins  to  buy.  She  goes  to  market  and 
picks  out  her  food.  It  is  easier  to  telephone  for  it,  but 
the  food  then  costs  more  and  may  not  be  fresh  and  choice. 

A  careful  housekeeper  buys  meat  from  a  good  butcher 
only.  A  good  butcher  keeps  his  meat  screened,  and  in  hot 
weather  on  ice.  His  chopping  block  is  always  freshly 
scoured.  He  has  an  automatic  scale,  so  the  customer  can 
see  that  she  gets  full  weight.  Good  and  fresh  meat  is 
firm,  pinkish,  with  a  fresh  smell.  Tiny  streaks  of  white 
fat  through  the  meat  show  that  it  is  tender.  Every  per- 
son, boy  or  girl,  should  learn  to  recognize  good  meat. 

The  careful  housekeeper  is  just  as  particular  about 
her  vegetables  and  fruits.  She  buys  only  unwilted,  crisp 
vegetables  which  have  not  been  exposed  to  dust  or  care- 
less hands.  She  chooses  ripe,  unspoiled  fruits.  She  buys 
the  things  that  are  in  season  when  they  are  plentiful  and 
cheap.  She  is  careful,  to  buy  for  her  family  much  fruit 
and  vegetables,  little  meat,  not  more  than  once  a  day, 
much  milk  and  cereals.  She  knows  that  such  a  selection 
of  foods  means  strong  bodies  and  clear  minds. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

Can  you  make  up  some  problems,  giving  actual  prices, 
which  will  show  whether  it  is  cheaper  to  buy  at  market  or 
grocery?  At  a  cash  grocery  or  at  one  where  you  tele- 
phone, charge  and  have  goods  sent? 

Why  is  an  automatic  scale  better  than  one  weighed 
by  hand?  Where  have  you  seen  automatic  scales?  Can 
you  describe  one? 


THE  MARKET  BASKET  171 

What  will  you  look  for  in  a  butcher  shop  before  you 
decide  if  this  butcher  shop  is  a  first-class  one?  In  a 
grocery?  In  a  bakery? 

Why  are  public  markets  useful  to  people? 

How  can  you  tell  good  meats  from  poor  ones  ?  Good 
vegetables  from  poor  ones  ?  Are  there  any  reasons  why 
a  person  might  not  like  to  buy  food  from  a  pushcart  in 
the  street? 

What  are  some  reasons  why  you  would  not  think  it  a 
good  plan  to  telephone  for  your  supplies  ? 


CHAPTEE  XVIII 
THE  STOKE  CLOSET 

As  Ruth,  with  the  market  basket  on  her  arm,  ran 
past  the  back  door  toward  the  play-house,  she  uttered 
a  cry  of  dismay.  On  the  back  steps  stood  a  pint  bottle 
of  cream  which  the  milkman  had  delivered  while  they 
were  marketing,  and  Zuzu,  Jim  Nixon's  terrier,  was 
licking  some  stray  drops  of  the  cream  from  the  top 
of  the  bottle. 

*  '  Stop  it,  Zuzu, ' '  she  cried.  ' '  Don 't  you  know  bet- 
ter than  to  lick  other  people's  bottles'?" 

Evidently  Zuzu  didn't,  for  he  looked  up  with  a 
doggy  smile  as  Ruth  brandished  her  arm  at  him. 

"Now  we'll  have  to  wash  the  bottle,"  said  Paul. 

Mother  had  been  watching  from  the  kitchen  win- 
dow. "You  certainly  need  lessons  in  housekeeping, 
Paul,"  she  said.  "A  good  housekeeper  never  puts  a 
bottle  of  milk  into  her  refrigerator  without  washing 
it,  and  especially  the  rim,  very  carefully.  Even  if 
Zuzu  hadn't  touched  it,  just  think  of  the  dust  and 
dirt  that  have  blown  onto  it ;  think  of  the  dirty  ice 
that  has  lain  against  it  and  of  the  dirty  hands  of  the 
driver  who  brought  it  here.  He  has  to  handle  his 
horse  and  his  reins  and  then  he  picks  up  the  milk 
bottles  by  their  tops  and  we  pour  the  milk  right  over 
those  same  bottle-rims.  If  we  don't  wash  the  bottles 
well,  we  shall  swallow  a  lot  of  dirt  and  perhaps  the 
seeds  of  some  disease." 

172 


THE  STORE  CLOSET 


173 


174 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


As  she  spoke,  Mother  picked  up  the  cream  bottle 
and  handed  it  to  Paul.  "Take  the  things  over  to  the 
play-house  and  I'll  come  over  in  a  moment,"  she  said. 

As  the  children  reached  the  play-house,  they  heard 
a  sound  of  hammering  on  the  back  porch.  Father 
had  gotten  there  ahead  of  them  and  was  hard  at 
work.  ' '  What  are  you  making,  Daddy  ? ' '  asked  Ruth. 

"I  thought,"  said  her  father,  "that  you  really 


need  a  screened  closet  on  top  of  the  refrigerator 
to  put  hot  dishes  to  cool  and  to  keep  fruit  and  other 
things  that  must  be  cool  but  that  do  not  need  to 
be  very  cold.  So  I  knocked  two  sides  out  of  this 
wooden  box  and  tacked  wire  netting  over  them,  so  as 
to  let  the  cool  air  blow  through.  Then  I  made  a  screen 
door  for  the  front  of  it.  I've  just  finished  fastening 
it  on  top  of  the  refrigerator.  Doesn't  it  make  a  good 
outdoor  store-closet  ? ' ' 

"It's  just  the  place  for  the  tomatoes  and  fruit," 
said  Mother,  who  had  joined  them.  And  Ruth 
proudly  placed  the  tomatoes  and  peaches  in  the  new 
screen-closet.  Meanwhile,  Paul  had  washed  the  milk 


THE  STORE  CLOSET 


175 


bottle  until  it  shone — especially  the  rim — and  he  was 
just  laying  the  package  of  meat  on  the  refrigerator 
shelf  when  Mother  checked  him. 

"Wait  a  moment,  son/'  she  said.  "Mr.  Sullivan 
keeps  a  very  clean  butcher  shop,  but  one  can't  be  too 
careful.  The  paper  that  the  meat  is  wrapped  in  may 
be  fly-specked  or  dusty.  Besides,  meat  that  lies 
wrapped  in  paper  is  likely  to  have  some  of  its  mois- 


ture absorbed  by  the  paper  and  become  dry  and  taste- 
less. The  best  way  is  to  take  the  paper  off,  wipe  the 
meat  with  a  clean,  wet  cloth,  and  then  put  it  away 
on  a  clean  plate." 

While  Paul  attended  to  the  meat  according  to 
Mother's  directions,  Ruth  washed  the  cream  bottle 
clean  and  put  it  beside  the  ice  in  the  refrigerator. 
She  was  just  laying  the  lettuce  beside  the  bottle  when 
Mother  said,  "Let's  look  at  that  lettuce  a  minute, 


176  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

Euth. ' '  With  Euth  leaning  over  her  shoulder,  Mother 
stripped  off  the  outer  leaves  of  the  lettuce.  In  the 
crinkly  pockets  on  the  inside  of  the  leaves  there  was 
so  much  dirt  that  Euth  exclaimed,  "Oh,  dear,  I  never 
thought  lettuce  could  be  so  dirty." 

"I  suppose  when  it  rained  so  hard  night  before 
last,  Miss  Lettuce  was  sound  asleep  in  her  garden- 
bed,"  said  Mother.  "The  rain  came  down  slop,  slop, 
splash,  splash,  and  as  it  struck  the  black  earth,  the 
dirty  water  spattered  all  over  Miss  Lettuce  and  ran 
into  the  folds  in  her  pretty  green  gown — that's  how 
she  came  to  be  so  dirty.  But  we  don't  want  to  put 
all  that  dirt  into  our  clean  refrigerator.  The  ice  was 
washed,  you  know,  before  it  was  put  in,  and 
Euth  washed  the  cream  bottle,  so  we'll  wash  the 
lettuce,  too." 

So  Euth  .carefully  held  each  lettuce  leaf  under  the 
faucet,  turning  it  over  and  over,  then  put  them  all  to- 
gether into  a  square  of  clean  cheese-cloth  and  laid  it 

on  the  ice  where  it  would  keep 
crisp  and  nice  until  to-morrow. 
"Professor  Dodge  showed  me  a 
photograph  the  other  day," 
said  Father,  "that  would  inter- 
est you.  He  had  put  some  dirty 
water  from  a  lettuce  leaf  onto  a 
plate  with  a  little  gelatin  in  it, 
and  whole  colonies  of  germs 
had  grown  there  in  a  few  days.  It  proved  how  many 
germs  there  can  be  on  one  leaf  and  how  necessary  it  is 
to  wash  fruit  and  other  things  that  we  eat  raw." 


THE  STORE  CLOSET  177 

"But,"  objected  Paul,  "look  at  the  dirty  things 
that  Eover  and  Zuzu  eat,  and  they  never  get  sick.  Jim 
Nixon  says  his  Uncle  Horace  went  to  Africa  once, 
to  a  place  where  all  the  negroes  ate  dirt — just  ate  it 
because  they  liked  it!" 

"Oh,  Paul,"  cried  Ruth,  "Jim  was  fooling  you." 

"No,"  said  Father,  "in  some  parts  of  Africa 
and  the  West  Indies,  there  are  negroes  who  really 
do  eat  dirt,  but  the  reason  is  that  they  are  sick  and 
have  an  unnatural  appetite  for  dirt.  No  one  who  is 
well  and  who  wishes  to  be  clean,  inside  and  out,  wants 
to  eat  dirty  things,  because  poor  savages  and 
dogs  do." 

While  they  had  been  talking,  Mother  had  been 
filling  the  jars  in  the  pantry  with  oatmeal,  flour, 
sugar,  cornmeal,  salt  and  other  things.  Each  shelf 
was  covered  with  clean  white  oilcloth,  so  that  it  could 
be  washed  clean.  The  white  shelves,  with  the  blue 
and  white  jars  sitting  in  shining  rows,  looked  very 
bright  and  pretty. 

"That  closet  reminds  me,"  said  Father,  "of  a 
story  that  my  grandmother  used  to  tell.  It  was  about 
a  prince  that  went  out  into  the  world  seeking  a  wife. 
When  he  came  to  a  castle,  where  a  beautiful  lady 
lived,  he  would  say,  'I  am  forbidden  to  look  upon  any 
maiden  except  in  a  mirror. '  Then  the  proud  maiden 
would  have  a  mirror  brought,  but  the  prince  always 
thanked  her  and  went  sadly  away.  At  last,  he  came 
to  a  humble  cottage  where  a  lovely  girl  named 
Blanche  lived.  She  was  called  Blanche  because  the 
name  means  ' white,'  and  her  whole  tiny  cottage  was 
12 


178 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


spotlessly  white  and  clean.  But  poor  Blanche  had  no 
mirror,  so  when  the  prince  asked  to  look  at  her  in  a 
mirror  she  ran  and  got  her  dishpan,  which  was  pol- 


ished  so  it  shone  like  silver.  The  minute  the  prince 
saw  her  reflection  in  the  dishpan,  he  cried,  l  You  are 
the  Bride  that  I  have  so  long  sought,  for  you  will  keep 
my  palace  as  snow-white  as  your  cottage. '  And  so,  as 
my  grandmother  used  to  -say  to  my  little  sister,  'A 
clean  kitchen  and  a  shining  dishpan  make  the  plain- 
est housekeeper  look  beautiful. ' 

THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 

Food  carefully  bought  must  be  carefully  stored  at 
home.  Outdoor  screened  closets  keep  fresh  and  cool 
food  that  does  not  need  to  be  on  ice.  This  way  of  storing 
food  saves  ice  and  space  in  the  refrigerator  for  the 
perishable  things. 

Everything  that  goes  into  the  refrigerator  must  be  as 
clean  as  we  can  have  it.  Milk  bottles,  and  especially  their 
tops,  must  be  carefully  washed  and  wiped  to  remove  dirt 
or  possible  germs  that  may  have  come  from  contact  with 
dirty  hands  or  dirty  ice.  Meats  should  be  taken  out  of  the 
paper  they  were  wrapped  in,  wiped  with  a  fresh,  moist 
cloth  and  laid  on  a  clean  plate.  Lettuce  and  celery  should 


THE  STORE  CLOSET  179 

be  separated  and  washed  piece  by  piece  in  running  or 
clean  water,  then  wrapped  in  a  clean  cloth  and  laid  on 
ice.  Indeed  every  food  should  be  taken  out  of  its  grocery 
wrapping  paper  and  put  into  a  clean  container.  Then  you 
are  ready  to  put  your  food  into  its  closet  or  refrigerator. 

The  cleanest  place  in  the  house  should  be  the  kitchen, 
and  the  most  careful  person  should  be  the  cook. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

How  can  you  save  ice  and  still  keep  food  cool  and  pro- 
tected from  insects? 

Why  ought  we  to  wash  the  tops  of  our  milk  bottles  be- 
fore we  put  them  away  or  pour  milk  from  them?  Watch 
the  drivers  of  milk  wagons  and  see  if  there  is.  a  reason. 
Notice  where  the  bottles  stand  before  they  are 
brought  indoors. 

Examine  the  next  vegetables  that  come  to  the  house — 
especially  lettuce  or  spinach.  What  reason  for  washing 
them  before  putting  them  away,  do  you  find?  How  can 
we  keep  lettuce  and  celery  fresh  and  crisp? 

How  does  a  good  housekeeper  put  away  her  meats? 
What  food  besides  meat  MUST  go  into  the  refrigerator  as 
soon  as  we  get  it?  What  are  the  reasons ? 

Why  do  we  want  the  people  who  cook  and  care  for  our 
foods  to  have  the  cleanest  habits? 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  MILKY  WAY 

"  THERE,  "  said  Mother,  as  she  untied  her  apron 
and  joined  the  rest  of  the  family  on  the  front 
porch,  "the  ice-cream  is  all  made,  Paul,  ready 
for  you  and  Father  to  freeze  it  the  first  thing  to- 
morrow morning." 

"Did  you  put  it  where  Billiken  can't  get  at  it  if 
he  should  sneak  in?"  asked  Paul,  anxiously. 

"Yes,  indeed.  It's  in  the  screen-closet  on  top  of 
the  refrigerator.  By  bedtime  it  will  be  cool  enough 
to  go  into  the  refrigerator,  itself." 

"I  think  home-made  ice-cream  is  ever  so  much 
nicer  than  the  kind  you  buy, ' '  said  Ruth.  l '  The  other 
day  Minnie  Nixon  was  absent  from  school  and  after- 
ward .she  told  me  that  it  was  because  she  ate  some 
ice-cream  that  she  bought  from  the  hokey-pokey  man, 
and  it  made  her  dreadfully  sick  at  her  stomach." 

"Why  do  they  call  it  'hokey-pokey'  ?"  asked  Paul. 
"It's  such  a  queer  name." 

"I  suppose  they  gave  it  that  name  because  it 
isn't  real,  good,  genuine  ice-cream — just  a  sort  of 
sham.  You  know,  a  l hocus-pocus'  is  another  word 
for  a  'hoax,'  or  trick.  So  hokey-pokey  ice-cream  is 
a  cheat.  It's  cold  and  tastes  sweet,  but  it  isn't  good, 
clean  wholesome  food,  as  home-made  ice-cream  is,  and 
anyone  who  buys  it  is  likely  to  be  cheated,  as  poor 
Minnie  was. ' ' 

180 


THE  MILKY  WAY 


181 


66  The  hokey-pokey  men  are  usually  dirty, "  said 
Ruth,  "but  I  don't  see  how  the  dirt  gets  inside  of  the 


ice-cream  can. 


"It  isn't  just  dirt,  Ruthie,  that  makes  people  ill," 
said  Father.  "Milk  may  not  have  any  actual  dirt 
in  it,  but  if  it  is  stale,  the  germs  have  grown  and  grown 
until  the  milk  is  spoiled.  The  acid  in  sour  milk,  if 
it  stands  in  a  tin,  like  the  freezer,  is  likely  to  form  a 
sort  of  poison  and  make  you  very  ill.  That  is  prob- 
ably what  happened  to  Minnie." 

"Minnie   is   careful   enough  now,"   said   Ruth. 


182  .  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"When  she  and  I  were  making  fudge  yesterday,  I 
opened  the  can  of  condensed  milk  and  left  it  stand- 
ing a  minute  on  the  table  and 
she  screamed  at  me,  'Ruth 
Weston,  don't  you  know  any 
better  than  to  leave  that  milk 
standing  in  the  tin?'  She  came 
near  throwing  it  away,  just  be- 
cause it  had  stood  in  the  open  tin 
for  a  moment." 

"Well,  I  wouldn't  want  you 
to  be  too  fussy, "replied  Mother, 
"but  it  really  is  dangerous  to 
leave  any  food,  especially  milk,  in  its  can  after  it  has 
been  opened.  You  know  that  when  I  canned  tomatoes 
last  week  I  was  very  careful  not  to  have  any  bubbles  of 
air  in  the  jar,  for  the  air  has  in  it  the  germs,  or  seeds, 
that  cause  decay  and  turn  things  sour.  So,  when  you 
open  a  tin  of  milk,  the  germs  begin  to  get  busy,  and 
the  milk  should  be  poured  at  once  into  a  glass  or 
china  or  enamel  pitcher  or  pan,  and  should  be  kept 
cool,  just  as  if  it  were  fresh  milk.  Canned  food  is 
very  convenient,  but  it  needs  care,  or  it  may  make 
you  ill." 

"Colonel  Wyndham  told  me,"  put  in  Paul,  "that 
in  the  army  they  used  milk  that  had  been  dried  into 
a  powder.  Why  didn't  the  powder  turn  sour?" 

"Because  the  germs  that  turn  things  sour  need 
water  in  order  to  live.  When  milk  is  dried  into  a 
powder  all  the  water  is  taken  out  of  it  and  no  germs 
can  live  in  it.  When  powdered  milk  is  to  be  used,  the 


THE  MILKY  WAY 


183 


cook  simply  adds  water  to  take  the  place  of  the  water 
that  was  dried  out  of  it.  You  know  that  when  we 
talked  about  germs,  we  said  that  all  germs  need  water 
and  like  warmth  and  darkness.  Fresh  milk  is  warm 
and  wet,  and  if  it  is  put  into  a  dark  milk  can  it  makes 
a  lovely  place  for  germs  to  breed.  To  keep  milk  in 
good  condition,  it  should  be  clean,  cool  and  covered— 
that  is  easy  to  remember  on  account  of  the  three  C's." 


"That  was  why  I  put  the  cream  on  the  ice 
this  afternoon,  instead  of  leaving  it  in  the  hot  sun," 
said  Paul. 

"Yes,"  said  Mother,  "the  milk  and  cream  bottles 
should  be  kept  as  cold  as  possible.  And  they  should 
be  covered.  When  you  take  the  cap  off  of  a  bottle,  be 
sure  to  replace  it,  or,  better  still,  cover  the  bottle  with 
a  clean  tumbler,  turned  upside  down.  The  cap  is 
often  soiled,  and  the  tumbler  makes  a  fine  cover." 

"Covered,"  said  Euth,  thoughtfully,  "and  Cold 
and  Clean.  But  even  if  we  keep  the  milk  in  our  own 


184  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

house  as  clean  as  can  be,  suppose  it  isn't  clean  to 
start  with." 

"That  is  where  we  must  all  work  together  to  get 
clean  milk, ' '  said  Father.  ' '  I  remember  several  years 
ago  that  we  found  we  were  getting  dirty  milk.  After 
the  milk  had  stood  awhile,  you  could  see  a  layer  of 
gray  in  the  bottom  of  the  bottle,  where  the  dirt  had 
settled.  Wharton  was  the  only  milkman  in  town, 
then,  and  when  anyone  complained  to  him  about  the 
milk,  he  would  say,  'Well,  if  you  aren't  satisfied,  get 
another  milkman.  I  do  the  best  I  can.'  So  some  of 
us  got  together  and  decided  that  if  Wharton  wouldn't 
give  us  clean  milk,  we'd  have  to  be  our  own  milkmen. 
So  we  took  a  journey  into  the  country  and  found  a 
farm  where  there  were  healthy  cows  and  a  clean  barn 
with  a  clean,  careful  owner.  We  agreed  to  buy  all  his 
milk  for  a  year.  Then  we  hired  a  man  to  take  the  milk 
from  the  railroad  station  and  serve  it  at  the  different 
houses.  After  awhile,  the  man  whom  we  had  hired  set 
up  his  own  milk  business.  He  gave  good,  clean  milk 
and  Wharton  found  that  he  must  sell  clean  milk,  too, 
or  lose  all  his  customers.  That  is  one  reason  why  we 
have  good  milk  here  in  Pleasantville." 

"I  saw  a  little  girl  the  other  day,"  remarked  Ruth, 
' '  carrying  home  a  pail  of  milk  from  the  grocery.  She 
had  a  nice  new  tin  pail  with  a  cover,  to  keep  the  dust 
out.  Isn't  that  just  as  good  as  a  bottle?" 

"It  is  a  great  deal  better  than  carrying  milk,  as 
lots  of  people  do,  in  an  open  pail,  with  all  the  street 
dirt  blowing  into  it,"  said  Mother,  "but  milk  that  is 
not  sold  in  bottles — *  loose'  milk,  as  it  is  called — has  a 


THE  MILKY  WAY  185 

good  many  more  chances  of  getting  dirty  than  bottled 
milk.  Can  you  think  why?" 

"Well,"  said  Ruth,  slowly,  "I  suppose  the  grocer 
might  be  careless  and  leave  the  cover  off,  and  flies 
might  get  in." 

"Yes,"  added  Paul,  "and  once  I  saw  the  cat  in 
Rogers'  grocery  licking  the  edge  of  the  can." 

"And  those  big  cans  are  harder  to  keep  clean  than 
small  glass  bottles  are,"  put  in  Ruth. 

"In  a  good  many  places,"  said  Father,  "it  is 
against  the  law  to  sell  any  but  bottled  milk." 

"Wouldn't  it  be  safer  not  to  drink  milk  at  all?" 
asked  Paul. 

"No,  indeed,  <son,"  said  Father.  "Milk  is  just 
about  the  best  food  there  is,  especially  for  young  folks. 
Mother  and  I  only  want  you  to  be  careful  to  eat  clean 
things,  but  that  doesn't  mean  that  milk  is  dangerous 
and  ought  not  to  be  used.  Up  there  in  the  sky  is  what 
we  call  the  *  Milky  Way. '  It  is  made  up  of  millions  of 
stars,  so  far  away  that  we  can't  see  each  separate  one. 
Down  here  on  earth,  we  have  a  real  Milky  Way,  made 
up  of  millions  of  quarts  of  milk  that  come  streaming 
into  the  cities  giving  food  to  babies  and  invalids  and 
children  and  grown  folks,  too.  I  don't  know  what  we 
would  do  if  it  were  not'  for  this  Milky  Way.  Every 
year  it  grows  bigger  and  bigger ;  every  railroad  car- 
ries great  cars  built  for  refrigerators  to  hold  the  milk. 
And  you  know  how  many  pennies  you  children  have 
given  so  that  milk  might  be  sent  to  the  children  in 
Europe.  Yes,  indeed,  milk  is  the  best  food,  so  let's 
keep  our  Milky  Way  clean  and  pure. ' ' 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


THE  MILKY  WAY  187 

THINGS  TO  DO 

Perhaps  your  teacher  will  take  you  to  visit  the  most 
sanitary  dairy  in  your  town  to  see  how  the  milk  is  received 
and  tested,  bottled  and  distributed.  Try  to  think  of  the 
reasons  for  each  process. 

Find  out  if  your  city  inspects  milk.  Find  out  if  it  pub- 
lishes any  lists  of  good  dairymen.  Find  out  if  your  city 
has  any  standards  for  milk  that  the  farmers  and  dairymen 
must  come  up  to.  Find  out  where  the  milk  you  use  in 
your  home  comes  from  and  how  good  it  is. 

Find  out  what  the  best  milk  in  your  town  costs  per 
quart.  Make  a  list  of  the  things  that  should  be  done  to 
such  milk  from  the  time  it  leaves  the  cow  till  it  reaches 
your  home  to  keep  it  sanitary. 

What  is  the  value  to  the  body's  health  of  a  quart  of 
good  milk  compared  with  a  pound  of  beef?  Make  up  your 
mind  then  if  a  quart  of  good  milk  is  expensive  or  cheap. 

THINGS  TO  KEMEMBER 

Milk  is  the  most  important  of  all  foods  for  babies  and 
growing  children.  Without  it  they  cannot  grow  as  they 
should.  Therefore,  to  keep  it  safe,  milk  and  everything 
made  from  milk  must  be  kept  away  from  germs,  Germs 
can  grow  in  milk  and  make  poisonous  substances  there 
when  we  are  careless  with  it.  Such  spoiled  milk  makes 
people  very  sick  and  kills  many  babies  every  year. 

To  care  for  milk  we  must  keep  it  covered,  clean 
and  cool. 

Milk  must  come  from  a  clean  place.  The  cows  must 
not  be  sick.  They  must  be  kept  clean  and  milked  in  a 
clean,  airy  barn.  The  milkers  must  be  healthy  and  must 
have  scrubbed  hands  and  must  wear  clean  clothes.  The 
buckets  in  a  clean  dairy  are  always  steamed  and  kept 
covered  till  used.  Careful  farmers  strain  the  milk  into 
sterilized  cans  and  cool  it  at  once.  They  send  these  cans 
to  the  city,  in  refrigerator  cars  if  possible,  as  soon  as  they 


188  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

can.  The  good  city  dairy  then  takes  care  of  the  milk  in  a 
clean  way  until  it  is  bottled  and  left  at  your  door.  Milk 
that  is  sold  from  a  can  instead  of  in  sealed  bottles,  is  not 
the  best  milk.  Do  you  see  why? 

Often  milk  is  preserved.  It  sometimes  has  all  of  its 
water  taken  out.  Then  it  is  a  white  powder.  In  this  form 
it  will  keep  a  long  time,  because  germs  cannot  live  in  dry 
substances.  Sometimes  milk  is  condensed,  and  sometimes 
evaporated.  Both  of  these  kinds  of  milk  have  much  of  the 
water  taken  out.  When  we  open  a  can  of  such  milk  we 
must  pour  all  of  it  into  china  or  glass  and  keep  it  cool — 
not  letting  it  stand  in  the  tin.  If  we  do,  germs  may  grow 
in  it,  and  injurious  substances  may  be  formed  in  the  can. 

Remember  that  milk  is  your  best  friend.  Treat  it  as 
such  by  giving  it  the  best  care  you  can. 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

If  you  could  choose  only  one  food  for  a  baby  what 
would  it  be?  Why  is  this  food  so  necessary! 

What  are  the  three  C's  to  remember  about  the  care 
of  milk? 

Someone  who  has  been  to  a  model  dairy  in  the  country 
will  tell  exactly  how  the  cows  were  cared  for  and  how  the 
milk  is  prepared  for  shipment. 

Someone  who  has  been  to  a  big  city  creamery  will  tell 
about  the  care  of  milk  in  the  city. 

Tell  a  story  about  the  milk  you  would  like  to  drink  for 
breakfast,  from  the  cow  to  your  cup. 

How  can  people  have  milk  to  use  where  there  are  no 
cows  and  where  fresh  milk  cannot  be  sent? 

Does  ice-cream  need  to  be  cared  for  the  same  as  milk? 
Have  you  ever  seen  ice-cream  that  you  think  might  not 
have  been  pure  and  clean?  Where? 

Do  you  think  your  city  ought  to  help  its  people  to  get 
good  milk?  Why?  How  could  it  do  so?  What  can  all 
of  us  do  to  make  sure  our  city  has  a  good  milk  supply? 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  HOUSEWAKMING 

"WELL,"  said  Aunt  Louise,  looking  up  from  the 
last  spoonful  of  her  ice-cream,  "this  has  certainly 
been  a  most  delightful  housewarming." 

The  moment  that  Aunt  Louise,  with  Uncle  George 
and  the  baby,  had  appeared  on  the  front  steps,  Ruth 
and  Paul  had  rushed  out  to  capture  her  and  escort 
her  over  the  play-house.  She  had  admired  Ruth's 
room,  praised  the  spotless  bathroom,  exclaimed  over 
the  convenient  kitchen  and  now,  as  she  looked  around 
at  the  work-play-study-living-room,  she  patted  Paul's 
hand  and  gave  Ruth  a  squeeze.  "It  is  just  perfect," 
she  said,  "and  I  hope  it  will  always  stay  so." 

"What  makes  you  say  that?"  asked  Ruth,  look- 
ing a  little  troubled.  "Why  shouldn't  it  stay  so?" 

189 


190  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

"Why,  Ruthie,"  said  Aunt  Louise,  "you  know 
there  is  a  saying,  'A  new  broom  sweeps  clean.'  That 
is  another  way  of  saying  that  when  a  thing  is  new, 
it  is  easy  to  keep  it  pretty  and  take  good  care  of  it, 
but  when  it  is  an  old  story  and  we  are  not  so  inter- 
ested in  it,  we  are  tempted  to  neglect  it." 

"I  see  what  you  mean,"  replied  Ruth.  "When 
Dorothy  Frost  first  had  her  bicycle,  she  used  to  polish 
the  handle-bars  every  day  and  throw  a  cloth  over  it 
at  night,  to  keep  off  the  dust,  but  now  she  leaves  it 
out  in  the  rain  and  doesn't  care  how  it  looks." 

"But  we  aren't  going  to  be  that  way  about  this 
play-house,"  cried  Paul.  "We've  settled  just  how 
to  take  care  of  it.  Ruth  is  going  to  see  to  her  room 
and  the  bathroom  and  kitchen,  and  I  am  going  to  see 
to  this  room  and  the  porches.  Of  course,  if  Jim  Nixon 
or  any  of  the  other  boys  come  in  and  we  make  candy, 
we'll  clear  up  the  kitchen,  and  if  Ruth  has  any  of  the 
girls  here  in  this  room,  they'll  clear  up  after  them- 
selves, but  generally  I  take  care  of  this  room  and 
she  takes  care  of  the  kitchen." 

"That  sounds  like  a  fair  division  of  labor,"  said 
Uncle  George. 

"Oh,  we  have  it  all  beautifully  arranged,"  said 
Ruth,  and  she  ran  across  the  room  to  her  desk.  ' '  Yes- 
terday I  made  a  list  for  Paul  and  one  for  me. 
They  are  like  the  marketing  list  that  I  made  for  the 
kitchen,  only  instead  of  the  things  to  be  bought,  they 
are  lists  of  the  things  about  the  house  that  we  each 
have  to  do." 

Aunt  Louise  studied  the  two  lists  with  interest. 


THE  HOUSEWARMING 


191 


"It  looks  to  me  as  if  you  were  going  to  be  first-rate 
housekeepers,"  she  said. 

"I  don't  suppose,"  said  Uncle  George,  with  a 
teasing  smile,  "that  Ruth  will  ever  leave  Edith 
Louise  on  the  kitchen  table,  or  Paul  will  throw  his  cap 
on  the  mantel-piece. ' ' 

"Oh,"  admitted  Ruth,  "I  suppose  we  shall 
forget  for  a  while,  but  Mother  thought  of  a 
splendid  scheme." 

"Yes,"  chimed  in  Paul.  "Do  come  out  on  the 
porch,  Uncle  George,  and  see." 

So  they  all  adjourned  to  the  porch,  where  Paul 
pointed  out  the  two  boxes,  with  hinged  lids,  that  had 
been  made  into  seats  on  each  side  of  the  porch.  '  *  This 
one  has  the  tools  and  croquet  set  in  it,"  he  explained, 
"but  this  one  we  are  going  to  call  the  ' Pound,'  because 
all  the  mislaid  things  go  into  it." 

Uncle  George  stooped  down  to  read  the  inscrip- 
tion on  the  box.  It  was  labeled  POUND,  in  large 


192 


THE  PLAY-HOUSE 


letters,  and  underneath  was  a  card  on  whi>ch  Ruth 
had  printed  : 

' '  If  you  leave  your  things  around, 
They'll  surely  get  into  the  Pound." 

"And  who  puts  things  into  the  Pound?"  inquired 
Aunt  Louise. 

"Whoever  finds  them,"  said  Paul.  "Yesterday 
I  put  two  of  Ruth's  handkerchiefs  in,  because  she  has 
a  way  of  tucking  them  under  her  chair  cushion  when 
she's  reading." 

"Yes,"  said  Ruth,  "and  I  put  in  Paul's  baseball 
mitt  and  I  was  just  going  to  put  his  knife  in  when  he 
saw  it  and  whisked  it  into  his  pocket." 


THE  HOUSEWARMING  193 

'  'Dear  me,"  said  Uncle  George,  "and  do 'the  mis- 
laid things  have  to  spend  the  rest  of  their  days  in 
the  Pound  ?" 

"Oh,  no,"  said  Paul.  "You  see,  here  inside  is  a 
pasteboard  box.  When  you  want  to  get  anything  out 
of  the  Pound,  you  must  put  a  cent  into  the  box.7' 

"And  what  will  you  do  with  the  money?"  asked 
Uncle  George.  "If  you  keep  on,  the  box  will  be  full 
of  pennies." 

"Oh,  no,"  cried  Ruth,  "I  have  almost  broken  my- 
self of  leaving  Edith  Louise  around  and  pretty  soon 
I'll  have  cured  myself  of  that  trick  of  tucking  my 
handkerchief  awa}^  But  I  suppose  for  a  while  Paul 
will  forget.  We're  going  to  use  the  money  for  pop- 
corn and  nuts  and  things,  so  as  to  make  candy  when 
we  have  company." 

"Bet  you  I  don't  forget  so  much  as  you  do!" 
cried  Paul,  indignantly. 

"Well,  well,"  said  Mother,  soothingly.  "  'The 
proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating,'  and  the  proof 
of  who  is  neater  will  be  who  has  fewer  pennies  in  the 
box.  Now  suppose  we  go  inside  again.  It's  rather 
cool  out  here  and  I  think  a  little  fire  on  the  hearth 
would  be  pleasant." 

So  they  sat  in  a  circle  about  the  blazing  fire,  watch- 
ing the  crinkly  lines  of  flame  run  along  the  logs — 
"like  the  rivers  on  a  map,"  as  Paul  said. 

"What  do  you  see  in  the  fire,  Uncle  George ?" 
asked  Ruth. 

Uncle  George  leaned  forward  and  stared  into  the 
leaping  flames.  "Over  in  the  corner,  under  the  big 

13 


194  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

log,  I  see  a  dark  cave, ' '  lie  said.  ' '  And  above  it,  where 
the  flame  shoots  up,  I  see  a  forest.  In  the  cave  live 
your  great-great-great-twenty-five-thousand-times- 
great-grandparents.  The  father  hunts  all  day  while 
the  mother  sees  to  the  children,  gathers  berries  and 
roots  and  tends  the  fire  that  warms  the  cave.  And  in 
the  tree-branches  overhead  swarm  men  that  seem 
almost  like  monkeys,  fighting  and  chattering. " 

"I'm  glad  our  house  is  not  like  that,"  said  Paul. 
'  '  And  what  do  you  see,  Daddy  ? ' ' 

"The  pointed  flames  look  to  me  like  tents  shining 
in  the  desert  sun,"  said  Father.  "I  see  the  men  gal- 
loping forth  on  their  black  chargers,  with  banners 
streaming  in  the  wind.  The  women  and  children 
stand  at  the  tent  doors  and  watch  them  out  of  sight. 
There  will  be  a  great  fight  with  a  neighboring  tribe 
and  to-morrow  the  tents  will  all  be  packed  up  and  the 
tribe  will  be  off  across  the  desert  into  the  land  that 
they  have  taken  from  the  enemy.  They  must  be 
x  Arabs,  for  they  wander,  wander  eternally,  seeking 
fresh  homes." 

"I  like  that  picture  better  than  Uncle  George's," 
said  Paul.  ' '  I  always  thought  1 'd  like  to  be  an  Arab. ' ' 

Euth  had  been  thoughtfully  stroking  Pussy's 
silky  ears.  Now  she  looked  up.  "Don't  you  see  a 
different  picture,  Auntie?"  she  said. 

"Yes,"  nodded  Aunt  Louise.  "I  see,  over  there 
in  the  corner,  a  vast  Hall,  where  crimson  and  golden 
banners  hang  on  the  wall  and  where  knights  and  ladies 
are  seated  at  a  great  table  feasting.  They  are  drink- 
ing a  great  deal  of  red  wine,  and  on  the  table  there  is 


THE  HOUSEWARMING 


195 


a  mighty  boar's  head.  But  the  floor  is  strewn  with 
rushes  and  the  poor  people  who  sit  at  the  lower  end 
of  the  room  shiver  in  the  draught  of  cold  air  that 
blows  through  the  Hall." 

"What  does  Mother  see  ?"  asked  Uncle  George. 

"I  don't  &ee  anything  so  exciting  and  romantic 
as  cave-ancestors,  or  Arabs,  or  knights  and  ladies," 


smiled  Mother.  "I  see  just  our  own  happy  selves  in 
our  own  cheery  home.  In  the  smoke,  I  read  the  word 
H-O-M-E,  and  I  think  the  H  stands  for  Health,  the 
O  for  Order,  the  M  for  Merriment  and  the  E  for 
Energy.  Ruth  and  Paul  have  learned  to  make  their 
play-house  a  real  home,  healthful,  orderly,  full  of 
merry  fun  and  energetic  work.  I'll  bring  in  some 
lemonade  and  we'll  all  drink  to  the  long  life  of  the 
Plav-house  home !" 


196  THE  PLAY-HOUSE 

TO  THINK  ABOUT 

What  habits  have  you  that  prevent  your  house  from 
being  neat  and  clean  ?  Does  this  story  suggest  any  ways 
by  which  you  could  overcome  them  I 

Which  can  you  describe  of  the  many  ways  in  which  our 
houses  are  better  than  those  of  our  far  away  ancestors? 

What  does  cooperation  mean?  How  would  it  help  in 
making  our  homes  the  best  the  world  has  even  seen? 
What  part  in  this  could  each  of  us  have  i 


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